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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Owen Hughes

Stena Line 'evaluating operations' in all regions as company axes hundreds of workers in Sweden

Ferry giant Stena Line is "evaluating operations" in all regions and plans to cut hundreds of jobs in Sweden in response to a sharp drop in bookings.

The ferry company - which runs routes between the UK and Ireland - plans 950 redundancies as it halts some of its Baltic Sea services.

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.    

While services and jobs are not currently impacted in the UK and Ireland it said it does not rule out further reductions - with all regions being looked at.

A spokesman said: "Stena Line is currently 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."

Stena Estrid (Arwyn Roberts)

The company runs routes from Holyhead and Liverpool to Dublin, Fishguard to Rosslare, Liverpool and Cairnryan to Belfast.

A source said that currently jobs and services on these routes are not impacted by the cuts.

A spokesman added: "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 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.

"At present, it is estimated that passenger operations will not recover before the peak season in summer."

Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line, said: "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."

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