Marlines

Overview

Marlines was a Greek shipping company founded in 1982 by Panayiotis Marangopoulos. Marlines began its services in 1983 on the Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Patras route. With an increase in tourism the company rapidly expanded with new routes from  Brindisi-Igoumenitsa-Patras and several other long haul routes from Italy to Turkey, Crete and Cyprus. With its competitors introducing increasingly modern and faster ships the company began to face a serious crisis. The company gradually reduced its fleet and its services, passing from the six ships in 1994 to only two in 1998. From 2000, the company only offered a seasonal service with one vessel on the secondary line from Bari (Italy) to Durres (Albania).  In the summer of 2009 the Bari to Durres link was suspended and the ship was laid up, effectively marking the end of the company.