Sakhalin shipping company resumes passenger service btw Sakhalin, Hokkaido

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, June 5. /TASS/. The shipping company SASCO, which is based in Russia’s Far-Eastern island of Sakhalin has resumed passenger service between Sakhalin and Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Before the end of the 2017 summer navigation season, it will make up to 78 cruises, marking a twofold increase versus the summer navigation of 2016, a spokesperson for SASCO told TASS. "The Pingvin-33 fast double-hulled passenger ship has left the port of Korsakov and is heading towards the port of Wakkanai on Hokkaido," he said. "Initially, it was scheduled for June 2 but SASCO had to cancel it because of unfavorable weather." "Traveling aboard the vessel today are fourteen customers," the spokesperson said. SASCO executives say the summer navigation on the Korsakov-Wakkanai-Korsakov route will last through to mid-September. This route has a history of more than twenty years. The first cruise took place in 1997 and it was performed by the Sakhalin-7 ferry, which serviced the line for the next four years. In 1999, a vessel of the Japanese operator HeartLand Ferry took over from the Russian ferry. It carried 77,000 customers over the sixteen years in operation on the route. However, the Wakkanai-Korsakov-Wakkanai service eventually turned to be unprofitable and HeartLand Ferry stopped it in September 2015. The talks on resuming it stepped up in May last year after Governor Oleg Kozhemyako’s visit to Japan. Officials from the Sakhalin regional government and the Wakkanai Mayor’s Office tool part in the talks on reopening the route and SASCO executives took part in the talks. SASCO became the new operator. In 2016, the Pingvin-33 made 15 cruises and carried 465 passengers. Read more