Stena Line, ferry company, announced 950 planned job redundancies in Sweden, a measure taken due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted the company’s passenger operations.
Specifically, the Swedish-based company announced on March 16, Monday, it has seen a substantial effect on its passenger operations as a result of the virus, especially in the Scandinavia region where passenger traffic to Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany, and Latvia has been halted “to a large extent,” the company commented.
Therefore, the company decided to proceed to a 950-job lay off. Concerning the job redundancies, they will affect 950 people employed by Stena Line Scandinavia AB and concern positions onboard and offshore, on nine Swedish flagged vessels, as well as positions in the two sister companies Stena Line Travel Group and Retail & Food Services.
The travel restrictions that have been implemented due to the coronavirus pandemic, have affected many shipping companies which have seen a drastic decline in travel bookings.
Also, Stena Line, amongst other ferry companies, completely halted its operations at its Oslo – Frederikshavn route until further notice.
For the time being, it is estimated that passenger operations will not recover before the peak season in summer.
The company stated that they are therefore forced to take drastic measures to adapt the reduce costs of the new business situation and to secure the continuity of their freight business.
Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line commented that
Due to the current situation we are facing, we have no choice but to adjust our operations and our costs to limit the drop in demand and secure the continuity of our freight operations
