REISFER Island Ferry Summit 2025 – Insightful Presentations and Networking
The first REISFER Island Ferry Summit fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange within and well-beyond the REISFER consortium in the sunny Helsinki on Thursday, 20 March 2025. The Summit was a success as it brought together a full room of over 50 professionals from academia, government, and the private sector all interested to learn and discuss island ferry governance and the recent developments towards green transportation in the Central Baltic Region.
The event was kicked off by Professor Lauri Ojala, Moderator of the Day, from the University of Turku, and Professor Ulla Tapaninen, REISFER Project Director at Tallinn University of Technology.
The first session explored the current status of island ferry governance and markets in Finland, Åland Islands, Estonia, and Sweden. Experts from governmental entities provided insights into the specificities in each of these four regions in the Central Baltic:
- Mr. Jani Sivusalo, Government Ownership Steering Department, Finland: State’s Expectations & Ownership Steering Model – Case Finferries
- Mr. Tommy Nordqvist, Government of Åland: Status and outlook in Åland Islands
- Ms. Annela Kornel, Public Transport Department, Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, Estonia: Ferry Traffic in Estonia 2025
- Mr. Erik Froste, Färjerederiet, Sweden: Swedish Road Ferries – part of Swedish Transport Administration
After the presentations, Mr. Juha-Matti Korsi, Head of Unit at Traficom, provided a valuable commentary from the perspective of a regulatory and oversight authority.
One of the highlights of the day was the release of the REISFER study “Road and Island Ferry Traffic Governance and Markets in the Central Baltic Region” by Prof. Lauri Ojala and BSc Elias Joki-Korpela, University of Turku. This study is the first of its kind as it provides an overview of the size and governance structures and categorisation of road and island ferry services in the Central Baltic region.
After fruitful discussions during the coffee break, the focus shifted to the REISFER project where a selection of project partner representatives provided the ferry operators’ views on green transition, decarbonization methods piloted in the project, and the status and first results:
- Mr. Håkan Fagerstörm, Finferries: “FinFerries – Green transition at operational level”
- Mr. Torvald Hvistendahl, Blidösundsbolaget. “First period”
- Mr. Petri Öhrmark, Suomenlinnan Liikenne Oy: “MS Suomenlinna 2 Emission reduction”
Dr. Carmen Antuña Rozado and Mr. Arto Laikari from VTT Finland provided additional insights, sharing updates from the Regions4Climate project. The emphasis was naturally on the Nordic Archipelago, where electrifying ferries is a key part of the vision for sustainable inter-regional transport.
The Summit served as an important stepping stone toward even more integrated collaboration both within the REISFER consortium and with our close stakeholders. At REISFER, we look forward to the activities ahead and will be sharing our progress along the way!
The following day, 21 March, was dedicated to the Partners meeting where the recent and upcoming REISFER activities were discussed in-depth.
