Big passenger boats steer clear of Estonian register

Photo: Repro

All large and lofty passenger vessels of Estonia, ferries connecting Tallinn to Helsinki and Stockholm, and mainland to isles, sail under Estonian flag. Proud of it, they never miss a chance to waive – even advertise – the blue, black and white banner. A maritime country, Estonia does own two vital ship companies: Saaremaa Laevakompanii and Tallink. The latter even the biggest of its kind, in the region.

Still, not a single one of the vessels sailing under Estonian flag is found in our ship register. Estonian ship register is for the smaller and less known vessels. Not for the big players. Estonian Maritime Administration, managing the register, admits: they are helpless to attract the vessels into Estonian register.

The reasons, true to business, are financial. For a vessel, both the flag and the register provide certain advantages. The best combination being the most advantageous flag and the most advantageous register.

Estonian flag, on a vessel, means that Estonian law, Estonian labour legislation and Estonian contract law are in force on board. XRPS, belonging to Viking Line and sailing between Tallinn and Helsinki, came under Estonian flag on January 24^th. According to Inno Borodenko, CEO of Viking Line Eesti, this was to economise on wage expenses of crew. «Our wage level is lower and thereby more advantageous for the employer,» explained Mr Borodenko.

Of liners, only the Tallinn-Helsinki sailing Finlandia isn’t under the Estonian flag yet.

When it comes to ship registers, however, the Baltic Sea picture is much more colourful. The most popular registers are to be found in the Mediterranean area islands.

The Tallink vessels, for instance, are registered in Cyprus. Saaremaa Laevakompanii’s new ferries are registered in Malta. Greece, Cyprus and Malta – these have Europe’s biggest ship registers.

Viking’s XPRS, for instance, which indeed assumed the Estonian flag, remains in Swedish register. Even so, most of Viking’s ships are in the Finnish register. On the one hand, Viking explains this as a tradition – these are the countries the ships are sailing to, thus it’s logical to keep them registered there. On the other hand, say they, this is the desire of their trade unions.  

Same with the Tallink vessels sailing between Finland and Sweden: three are in Swedish register, two in the Finnish one. Only the vessels sailing under Estonian flags favour the ship registers of warm southern islands.

First and foremost, this is explained by nuances in financing of the ships. Namely, lots of banks specialising in loans to build ships do not recognise the Estonian ship register. In the Cypriot, Maltese, or Greek registers, it is much easier to create ship maritime mortgage; the register services are cheaper and faster; they have the traditions, the corresponding traditions, and support services.

Lion’s share of shipping companies does use these registers; for instance, German ships are mostly registered in Cyprus.