Förde Reederei Seetouristik

Infobox_Company
company_name = Förde Reederei Seetouristik
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 1990
location = Flensburg, Germany
key_people = Götz Becker, Jan Kruse, Johann Friedrichsen (Directors)
num_employees = 750 (2007)
industry = Shipping company and services
products = Ship owning and Operations, Ship Management, Ship Chartering and Brokering, Maritime Consultancy Services
homepage = [http://www.frs.de/ www.frs.de]

Förde Reederei Seetouristik (FRS) is a German based shipping company operating on short routes, domestic as well as on short international routes with conventional and HSC (High Speed Craft) classed Fast Ferries for passenger only or with vehicles capacity.

History

Förde-Reederei Seetouristik GmbH und Co KG (FRS) is looking back at a shipping history of over 70 years. Förde-Reederei GmbH was founded in 1935, by some one hundred Flensburg merchants, as the successor to 'Vereinigte Flensburg-Ekensunder und Sonderburger Dampfschiffsgesellschaft'. It started business with regular passenger services and excursion trips on the Fjord of Flensburg, gradually expanding to the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish islands. In 1979, Förde Reederei GmbH acquired the Römö-Sylt ferry service operated by Römö-Sylt Linie GmbH & Co. KG.

Two Flensburg business man established KG Seetouristik GmbH & Co. in 1957, initially to serve the Flensburg-Kollund route. Multiple activities developed from this base embracing Travemünde, Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland. From the year 1984, KG Seetouristik GmbH & Co. operates the service linking Hamburg/Cuxhaven and Heligoland, deploying the popular MV "Wappen von Hamburg".

January 1991 saw the establishment of Förde Reederei Seetouristik GmbH & Co. KG which combined the day passenger activities from Schleswig-Holstein ports of KG Seetouristik GmbH & Co. and of Förde Reederei GmbH.

Several predecessor companies joined forces in January 1957 to form VEB Fahrgastschiffahrt „Weisse Flotte“ Stralsund, thereby uniting virtually all activities in the passenger liner and excursion trades from the Baltic ports of the then German Democratic Republic, to which were added in 1960 the Hiddensee branch at Kloster and in 1961 the Warnemünde branch. In addition to maintaining the Hiddensee service, other ferry services were added, such as, in 1975 the Wittow/Rügen line, the Rostock/Warnemünde link in 1977 and in 1994, the Stahlbrode/Glewitz line. To round off its Mecklenburg-Vorpommern activities, FRS acquired the Stralsund-based Weisse Flotte GmbH. In turn, Weisse Flotte GmbH established an affiliate, Reederei Hiddensee GmbH, Vitte, in 1995.

FRS was forced to discontinue its excursion business between Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark as a direct consequence of the decision of the European Union to ban, effective June 1999, duty-free sales to passenger travelling within the EU which immediately made these services totally uneconomic.The shareholders of FRS, Förde Reederei GmbH and KG Seetouristik GmbH & Co. agreed in 1998 to merge those shipping activities hitherto operated separately but which could survive the termination of duty free sales.

FRS operating subsidiary companies

German acting subsidiary shipping companies

* Weiße Flotte GmbH, located in Stralsund
* Reederei Hiddensee GmbH, located in Stralsund
* Helgoline GmbH & Co. KG, located in Flensburg
* Rømø-Sylt Linie GmbH & Co. KG, located in Flensburg

German acting subsidiary bus companies

* AFAG Bus GmbH, located in Flensburg
* Förde Bus GmbH, located in Flensburg
* VSF GmbH, located in Schleswig

International operating subsidiary shipping companies

* FRS Iberia S.L., located in Tarifa (Spain)
* FRS Maroc SARL, located in Tanger (Morocco)
* Nordic Jet Line (principal shareholder), located in Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia)

Fleet of operating vessels

Fast ferries for passenger and vehicles

* HSC Tanger Jet II (2007 - present)
* HSC Tarifa Jet (2006 - present)
* HSC Tanger Jet (2001 - present)
* HSC Nordic Jet(1998 - present)
* HSC Baltic Jet (1999 - present)

Fast ferries for passenger

* HSC Halunder Jet (2003 - present)
* Taxiboat Pirat (1993 - present)
* Taxiboat Störtebeker (1993 - present)

Conventional passenger ferries

* MS Hansestadt Stralsund (1996 - present)
* MS Insel Hiddensee (1995 - present)
* MS Gellen (1993 - present)
* MS Schaprode (1993 - present)
* MS Altefähr (1996 - present)
* MS Atlantis (2006 - present)

Double End Carferries

* MF SyltExpress (2005 - present)
* MF Vitte (1992 - present)
* MF Stahlbrode (1994 - present)
* MF Glewitz (1994 - present)
* MF Warnow (1995 - present)
* MF Breitling (1995 - present)
* MF Wittow (1996 - present)

Fleet of operated vessels

* HSC Thundercat 1 (2004 - 2008)
* HSC Hanse Jet (1996 - 2004)
* HSC Baltic Jet (1997 - 2004)
* HSC Flying Viking (2002 - 2003)
* HSC Cat No. 1 (1999 - 2006)
* MS Wappen von Hamburg (1983 - 2005)
* MS Helgoland (2004 - 2005)
* MS Wilhemlshaven (2004 - 2005)
* MF Vikingland (1979 - 2007)
* MF Westerland (1979 - 2006)
* MS Baltic Star (1975 - 2000)
* MS Dania (1980 - 2001)
* MS Ostsee (1990 - 1998)
* MS Nordsee I (1975 - 1998)
* MS Pseidon (1977 - 2002)
* MS Wappen von Flensburg (1992 - 1999)
* MS Seemöwe (1993 - 2003)
* MS Mommark (1969 - 2003)
* MS Fritz Reuter (1990 - 1999)

Operating Routes

External links

* [http://www.frs.de FRS Holding official site (en|de)]
* [http://www.frs.es Spain-Morocco traffic (en|de|fr|es)]
* [http://www.njl.fi Nordic Jet Line Estonia-Finland traffic (en|fi|ee)]
* [http://www.syltfaehre.de Rømø-Sylt ferry traffic (de|da)]
* [http://www.helgoline.de Island Helgoland traffic (de)]
* [http://www.weisse-flotte.de Weiße Flotte GmbH (de)]
* [http://www.reederei-hiddensee.de Island Hiddensee traffic (de)]
* [http://www.frs.ae Consultancy for ferry operations by FRS (en)]

References