You are in: HOME > COMPANIES 2.0 > LETTER
“A” > AGAPITOS EXPRESS FERRIES – AEGEAN CARGO
AGAPITOS express ferries
Aegean Cargo
The company AGAPITOS EXPRESS FERRIES was founded in
1992 by Kostas and Ioannis Agapitos after the
“divorce” of Agapitos Bros; the six ferries of the former company were equally
divided between Agapitos Lines and Agapitos Express Ferries, while the ships
“Express Olympia”, “Aigaion” and “Kyklades”,
soon renamed “Express Efvoikos”, were assigned to the
latter company, together with the licences of the routes to Paros, Naxos, Ios, Santorini and Eastern Cyclades. In 1994 the “Aigaon” was substituted by the new ship “Express
Santorini”, and the “Express Efvoikos” sold to Ventouris Lines. The bankruptcy of this company and of the
parent company Ventouris Sea Lines led to a
considerable growth of Agapitos fleet: the “Express Efvoikos”returned
home under the name “Express Danae” for the new Saronikos
Islands line (Aegina - Methana - Poros
- Hydra - Spetses) and the new “Express Apollon”,
former “Apollo Express 1”, strengthened the presence of the company on Cyclades
routes. The following year two more former Ventouris
ships joined the fleet: the “Express Athina”,
directly from V.S.L. bankruptcy, and the “Express Hermes”, bought from Ventouris Ferries with her operating licence for Rafina – Andros – Tinos – Mykonos line, even if Agapitos
decided to employ the “Express Athina” on this line.
On that year also the “Express Afrodite” was acquired
to serve Syros, Tinos and Myconos islands. In
November 1999 Minoan Flying Dolphins acquired all the ferries of Kostas
Agapitos’s company and “Agapitos Express Ferries” stops its services.
Surprisingly the company comes back in 2001 with a two- ro/ro ship service between Piraeus and Heraklion, with very
interesting financial figures; soon the ships were chartered by Anek which rebranded the ships as Anek
Cargo. Agapitos acqyired later many other ro/ro’s like the “Aegean Glory”,
the “Aegean Sun”, later renamed “Archagelos” and, in
recent times, the “Acacia” and the “Aegean Fantasy”, ferries which were usually
chartered to Anek Cargo, the cargo division of the
Cretan company. There are regular rumours about a comeback of Kostas Agapitos
on passenger ferry market, a fact which happened for a while with the “Athina” operated by Nova Ferries, but these rumours until
now remained only rumours. After 2007, finally, the company added two more ro/ros to its fleet, the “Aegean
Fantasy” in 2007, replacing the former vessel named in the same way, and in
2008 the formidable “Aegean Heaven” a 30-knot ferry which, anyway, was not employed
yet under company’s colours. Actually, is the only vessel still in Aegean Cargo
fleet, due to the shrink in charter market, which led to the scrap of all the
other mates.
AGAPITOS EXPRESS FERRIES / AEGEAN CARGO's datas
|
Ro/Ro Aegean
Pearl (2001-14) |
|
|
|