FESCO icebreaker to start passenger tourist voyage to the Arctic
On July 8, 2016 FESCO icebreaker «Kapitan Khlebnikov» went to the Arctic expedition with tourists on board, says FESCO. Under this project the icebreaker is time-chartered by FESCO long-established client — the US company Quark Expeditions. The voyage will last until September 2016.
The crew consists of 59 FESCO seamen led by an experienced Captain Vladimir Boldakov. In early July about 20 persons of staff were taken on board of the icebreaker in the port of Vladivostok (among them, except the Russians, the citizens of Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Argentina, the UK and Canada). When the icebreaker departed Vladivostok, there were only four tourists on board. The icebreaker «Kapitan Khlebnikov» will take the most of the passengers at the port of Anadyr. About 100 tourists from the US, UK, Canada and other countries will be picked up in the Chukchi port.
Leaving the port of Anadyr, «Kapitan Khlebnikov» will pass the Russian part of the Arctic along the Northern Sea Route, then will cruise around Greenland, along the coast of Canada, and will arrive in Anadyr by the end of September. During the voyage tourists will visit Wrangel Island, New Siberian Islands, Severnaya Zemlya, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Spitsbergen, Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.
By operating the icebreaker «Kapitan Khlebnikov», FESCO managed to enter the unique market of specialized services and perform passenger and tourist voyages to the Arctic and the Antarctic regions. «Kapitan Khlebnikov» was converted into ice passenger vessel in 1992, the same year FESCO received the necessary certificates and authorizations of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. Thus «Kapitan Khlebnikov» ‘s regular tourist voyages began to the Canadian Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland, the islands of the Bering Sea and other sea and coasts, most of the year held down by ice that create insurmountable obstacles for navigation of transport and passenger vessels. «Kapitan Khlebnikov» made tourist voyages from 1992 to 2011: in winter period there were trips to Antarctica with port calls to Argentina and New Zealand, in the summer — to the Arctic. During 2012 to 2015 passenger voyages were not performed.
FESCO is one of the leading privately-owned transportation and logistics companies in Russia with operations in ports, rail, integrated logistics and shipping business. Diversified but integrated asset portfolio enables FESCO to provide D2D logistics solutions and control almost all steps of the intermodal transportation value chain. The majority of FESCO’s operations are located in the Russian Far East and the Group benefits from growing trade volumes between Russia and Asian countries. FESCO controls the Commercial Port of Vladivostok. FESCO is one of Russia’s top 10 private railcar operators providing services under the brands Transgarant (100%) and Russkaya Troika (50% JV with Russian Railways). FESCO owns and operates a fleet of 22 cargo ships and four icebreakers (in long-term time-charter).
