High diesel prices leave a string of island ferries with million-dollar holes in the budget.

Domestic news ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland )

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High diesel prices leave a string of island ferries with million-dollar holes in their budgets

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Ferry chairman raises the red flag: 'It's worrying and it's happening everywhere'.

Several municipal ferry companies are under pressure from high fuel prices. Something has to happen, says the Small Islands' Ferry Association. (Photo: © Morten Rasmussen, Biofoto/Ritzau Scanpix)

By

Theis Lange Olsen ( [email protected] ) 21 minutes ago

In a number of municipalities, local politicians are currently sitting with sweaty palms.

The fixed-price agreements that for years have shielded municipal ferry companies from skyrocketing fuel prices are expiring one by one.

So from the Limfjord and Læsø to Lolland, Funen and Samsø, a crisis is brewing just below the surface, warns Lars Hansen, chairman of the Small Islands' Ferry Associations.

- It's pretty much everywhere. People have tried to protect their budgets with fixed-price agreements, but with the prices on the world market right now, it just goes up, up, up. It's worrying, he says.

On Samsø, the municipal ferry company will likely soon have to find up to 650,000 kroner a month because several fixed-price agreements are expiring.

For many smaller island municipalities, there are no deep coffers to dip into. So the choice will quickly come down to fewer departures, slower crossings, or significantly more expensive tickets.

Measures that directly cut into the lifeline that keeps the islands alive, says Lars Hansen.

- The consequences are ultimately depopulation of the Danish islands. We've had people living on the Danish islands for thousands of years, and it would be a shame if that were to be destroyed by fuel prices going crazy, warns the ferry chairman.

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Two levers to pull

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The vast majority of islands dream of replacing the fuming diesel engines with green battery operation.

But that transition can cost a three-digit million amount – and that money is very hard for the municipalities to find in their budgets.

Lars Hansen therefore points to two very concrete measures that the government can take right now to put out the fire:

- To start with, they could drop the CO2 tax for these small ferries. It makes up a fraction of the overall climate account. And secondly, they could create some funding pools so that municipalities can get financing for converting or building new ferries for green operation, he says.

According to the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs, work is currently underway on a compensation scheme for the municipal ferry companies to mitigate the worst consequences.

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