The ferry “Ciudad de Valencia” sails towards Klaipeda to join DFDS service

The Italian-flagged ferry “Ciudad de Valencia”, owned by Visemar, set sail yesterday from the Cernaval shipyard in the bay of Algeciras, where it has been for several weeks, on its way to Klaipeda, Lithuania, where it is expected to arrive on October 21, to join the DFDS service in the Baltic. The mentioned vessel is now painted white and currently retains its original name.

DFDS announced in April that the chartered vessel would increase capacity, especially for passengers, on the Karlshamn-Klaipeda route, where it will replace the “Optima Seaways” ship, which has one-third of the passenger capacity of the “Ciudad de Valencia” ferry, while the cargo capacity is negligible, at 260 linear meters.

Since its delivery in August 2020, the “Ciudad de Valencia” ferry was chartered by Trasmediterránea to cover the Cádiz-Canary Islands line. When Baleària took over the rescue of the Armas Group company from the bondholders, it began to cover services to the Balearic Islands.

It is an attractive ship for passengers, although it has had frequent technical problems, especially with propulsion, including breakdowns and incidents. In the last four years, until Baleària arrived, it experienced a considerable decline in service quality on board due to cuts implemented from Madrid, which its crew managed to overcome with their best dedication and effort despite the limited availability of human and material resources.

Photo: José Torres Tur for puentedemando.com