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Minoan Lines is one of the largest passenger ferry companies in Europe,and one of the dominant passenger ferry companies in Greece, sailing between Piraeus and Crete and in the Adriatic Sea, between Patras and various Italian ports. The company was founded in May 1972. Since 2008 Grimaldi's Compagnia di Navigazione SpA owns and controls 45% of the stock of Minoan Lines. Its logo is derived from ' fresco of Knossos ==History== 2003 *The cooperation between Minoan and Grimaldi ended, with only the MS ''Oceanus'' deployed on the Italy-Tunisia route. *The MS ''Oceanus'' was renamed ''Ariadne Palace I'' and sold to Corsica Ferries. *MS ''Prometheus'' was sold to Caronte shipping, an Italian shipping company. 2004 *Minoan decided to focus solely on the shipping sector and sold its stake in Aegean Airlines. 2005 *Attica Group acquired 10.23% of the share capital of Minoan, reaching an 11.61% stake in the company. *Minoan sold its 18% stake in Forthnet to Intracom. 2006 *The MS ''Ariadne Palace'' was sold to Moby Lines. All three vessels from the Samsung shipyard were sold to other companies. *Minoan Lines was Passenger Line of the Year according to Lloyd's List. 2007 *In February, Attica Group increased its stake in Minoan Lines. *In June, Attica Group sold its entire stake in Minoan (22.2%) to Access Maritime SA, which is controlled by Mr. Laskarides. *In December, Sea Star Capital, owner of ANEK Lines, acquired a 26.05% stake in Minoan Lines from Access Maritime in a privately negotiated transaction. 2008 *In January, Sea Star Capital signed an agreement with Grimaldi's Compagnia di Navigazione SpA to sell its 26.7 percent stake in Minoan. *In October, Compagnia di Navigazione SpA, mother company of the Grimaldi Group, raised its stake above the limit of one third of shared capital and voting rights, which triggered a mandatory bid for the rest of the shares. The offer was launched at the end of October and lasted until the end of November. During this period, Grimaldi acquired an additional 47.9% stake in Minoan Lines, raising its total stake to about 85%. 2009-10 *In January, MS ''Pasiphae Palace'' was sold to SNCM, and became the ''Jean Nicoli''. The replacement on the Venice - Igoumenitsa - Patras route was the MS ''Eurostar Barcelona'', on loan from the mother company Grimaldi,〔http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/viewArticle.htm?articleId=20017610508&src=rss〕 formerly operated by Minoan under the name of MS '' Prometheus''. ''Eurostar Barcelona'' was renamed ''Zeus Palace''. *''Ikarus Palace'' began operating on charter with Grimaldi Group on the Livorno - Barcelona - Tangier route. *In October 2009, the new MS ''Cruise Europa'' was delivered, followed by the sister-ship MS ''Cruise Olympia'' in the early summer 2010. 2011 *In January 2011 Minoan Lines cancelled the sale of its 33.35% stake in Hellenic Seaways to ANEK and tried to find a new buyer for it.〔.ekathimerini.com 30.09.2011 http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_03/01/2011_371619〕 2012 *The year began with a significant loss for the company - the closure of the Venice route. The fate of the ships that operated on this line remained uncertain until the end of July 2012, when ''Europa Palace'' joined ''Cruise Europa'' and ''Cruise Olympia'' on the Ancona route. Meanwhile ''Olympia Palace'' was laid up in Perama. Despite the rumored reopening of the Piraeus - Chania route, both ships were then chartered to CIN, owner of the recently privatized Tirrenia di Navigazione, and used on the Cagliari - Arbatax - Civitavecchia route. ''Europe Palace'' was renamed ''Amsicora'', and "Olympia Palace" became ''Bonaria''. Both ships underwent a partial refit at Messina, and changed their ports of registry from Heraklion to Cagliari, and their flags from Greek to Italian. *At the end of 2012 the daily Ancona - Igoumenitsa - Patras route was extended to call at Trieste thrice weekly. The route was operated by ''Cruise Europa'' and ''Cruise Olympia''. A third ship, ''Europalink'', was also added to the route in order to increase load capacity. The ship was previously operated by another Grimaldi Group company, Finnlines, but was changed flags from Swedish to Italian and operated in cooperation with Grimaldi. 2013 *On January 5, ''Europalink'' experience a failure and was forced to make an emergency stop in the port of Brindisi.〔http://www.blitzquotidiano.it/cronaca-italia/falla-sul-traghetto-europa-link-grimaldi-1439324/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter〕 Passengers and vehicles were disembarked safely and continued the journey with Grimaldi Group's ''Florencia''. The ship was then brought from Brindisi to Messina yards for repair. 2014 *On September 21, ''Europalink'' struck rocks off Peristeres, north east of Corfu, Greece. All 70 crew and 692 passengers were evacuated. It was later refloated and taken in to Kerkyra, Greece for repairs. ''Europalink'' was on a voyage from Patras, Greece to Ancona.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Captain and Chief Officer of Grounded Ferry Arrested )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=EUROPALINK )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Minoan Lines」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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