The technical fault on the M/S Drotten that caused Destination Gotland to have to cancel trips is taking longer than expected to fix.
She can be in traffic again on Sunday at the earliest.
“Unfortunately, it is the case that almost all yards are fully occupied in the immediate area,” says CEO Marcus Risberg.
Due to a technical fault, several departures have been canceled since Friday, affecting thousands of travelers. The idea was that the ferry would have been taken out of service until Tuesday, but now it is clear that the earliest it can be back in service is August 20.
– Our ambition was to be able to remedy the technical error as quickly as possible and get the ship in on one turn. Unfortunately, it is the case that almost all yards are fully occupied in the immediate area, says Destination Gotland’s CEO Marcus Risberg to TV4 Nyheterna.
On the way to Denmark
Now M/S Drotten is sent to a shipyard in Denmark. The company’s own service technicians expect that the error can be fixed by Sunday, but the forecast is uncertain.
– We will see that once we open up the propeller hub where the fault is. If it is worse than our service technicians fear, it can of course be that the repairs take longer, says Risberg.
A couple of thousand are affected
M/S Drotten, which is one of three Gotland ferries, operates the routes Visby–Nynäshamn and Visby–Oskarshamn.
– The trips that we have now canceled are two double trips from Gotland and back. A few thousand passengers affected by delays because of this.
The delays mainly apply to journeys from Gotland back to the mainland, and are expected to be 12-14 hours.
– It is much easier to get to Gotland. We are in an intense return period where many vacationers and Gotlänners are going back to the mainland again.
Customers can receive compensation for delays afterwards if they contact the company’s customer service.