Finnlines

About Finnlines

Finnlines is a Finnish shipping company and one of the leading providers of freight and ferry connections in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. The company was founded in 1947, starting out with six ageing steamships intended to bolster Finland's merchant fleet after the war. Since the 2000s, Finnlines has belonged to the Grimaldi Group of Naples, one of the world's largest Ro-Ro operators; the Italian group became the largest shareholder in 2007 and took full ownership of the company in 2015. Finnlines plays a particular role for Finland: around 95 per cent of Finnish exports and 97 per cent of imports travel by sea, and a large share of that passes through Finnlines' ships.

Fleet

Finnlines owns around 20 ships with a combined capacity of roughly 88,000 lane metres and runs about 190 departures a week; the fleet's average age is around 15 years. For travellers, the passenger ferries matter most: the three sister Star-class ships Finnstar, Finnmaid (both 2006) and Finnlady (2007) sail between Travemünde and Helsinki with 554 passenger places and 4,215 lane metres each. Their sister ships Finnswan, Finnpartner and Finntrader serve the Travemünde–Malmö route. The newest ships are the 2023-built Superstar ferries Finnsirius and Finncanopus, each with 1,100 passenger places and 5,200 lane metres, sailing between Kapellskär, Långnäs and Naantali. All passenger ships hold the highest ice class, 1A Super, and sail year-round.

Routes to Finland

The key connection for travellers coming from Germany is Travemünde–Helsinki: the only direct ferry between Germany and Finland departs daily from Skandinavienkai and, after 30 hours and two nights on board, arrives at the port of Vuosaari in eastern Helsinki. If you're travelling via Sweden, take Kapellskär–Naantali instead: from the port north-east of Stockholm, with a stop in Långnäs on Åland, the crossing to Naantali near Turku takes around eight and a half hours, twice daily. Finnlines also runs Travemünde–Malmö and Świnoujście–Malmö, both connections to Sweden.

Check-in, vehicles and pets

In Travemünde, check-in for the Helsinki ferry opens the evening before at 20:30 and closes two hours before the overnight departure; anyone who has booked a power connection for their vehicle must have checked in by 23:30, and foot passengers should arrive by 23:00, since the shuttle bus to the ship only runs until midnight. Loading begins at around 23:00. Vehicles over 3.80 m in height, such as coaches and tall motorhomes, check in at the harbour building; vehicles over 2.10 m are held on a separate deck and loaded later. Within the port area you must wear a hi-vis vest outside your vehicle and while cycling. In Kapellskär and Naantali, check-in opens two hours before departure and closes one hour before; in Helsinki-Vuosaari, check-in for the return crossing to Travemünde runs between 12:00 and 14:00.

Cars, motorbikes, bicycles, caravans and motorhomes are all carried; details are in the guide Travelling to Finland with a motorhome. Register pets when booking: pet cabins are available with a maximum of two animals per cabin, and animals aren't allowed in indoor areas such as the restaurant, bar and lounge. What else applies on entry is covered in the guide Travelling to Finland with a dog.

Tickets

On board and at check-in you pay by card only — Visa, Mastercard or Maestro — cash isn't accepted. Finnlines charges in euros, even on the Sweden route. On Kapellskär–Naantali there's a limited-availability Special fare and a flexible Standard fare; on the Helsinki route, cancellation and rebooking depend on the product chosen. Departures are shown in the timetable, fares for your date in the route page's booking window; what you need to keep constant for a fair comparison is explained in the price overview.