The majority of the affected 950 people are employed by Stena Line Scandinavia AB, and the planned job redundancies 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.

This measure has been ascribed to the major impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on Stena Line’s passenger operations.

“Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and travel restrictions imposed by several countries, Stena Line has, like many other companies within the travel industry, seen a drastic decline in travel bookings,” the company said.

“The effect has been the worst in Scandinavia and recent those days passenger traffic to Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany, and Latvia has been stopped to a large extent.”

Stena Line has completely stopped operating its Oslo – Frederikshavn route since March 14 until further notice. The ferry company estimates that passenger operations will not recover before the peak season in summer.

“Stena Line is 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,” the company pointed out.

“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,” says Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line.

Stena Line added it was evaluating its overall operations in all regions due to the sharp decline in travel bookings and does not rule out that there will be further reductions or series of changes to its timetables and/or the route network.