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The economic crisis has severely hit shipping in Greece. Major changes in schedules and destinations of the ferryboats connecting the mainland with the islands will follow the tourist peak in the summer. Expensive fuel, tax increases and the collapse of consumer spending by the average Greek have driven marine transport companies to request a new lighter mode of operation from the Ministry of Merchant Marine. The companies will require the Ministry to allow the reduction of unprofitable destinations in winter. Furthermore, transport companies are planning to reduce the cruising speed of the ships that will continue to sail to the islands. The management of the ferry companies is hoping to save on fuel costs in that way.

"Company’s investors and shareholders cannot justify the operation of any ferry (of the unprofitable ones) from September 2012 to June 2013. The financial situation of the companies is so tragic that there is no option for providing additional support for maritime transport through private investment," George Ksiradakis, Executive Director of XRTC, said, cited by Naftemporiki. His colleague, the Executive Director of Blue Star Ferries Michalis Sakellis sent the same message. He said that the extremely high fuel prices and the reduction of traffic create poor development perspectives for the industry. "We lost about five million passengers in the last five years," Sakelis said, adding that fuel prices increased 120% in the same period. "Ferry lines are in difficulty and we cannot find a formula for cheaper tickets."
 
Lack of liquidity is another obstacle to shipping companies, which impedes normal activities. Banks do not lend money for reinvestment, credit lines with suppliers have been frozen and turnover continues to decline. At the same time, Greece has about 300 inhabited islands that need to connect to the mainland. "The incentives in labour relations and tax concessions cannot provide the competitive advantage the industry needs at this time. It's like an aspirin and has a short-term effect. Equally insignificant will be the effect of the granting of long outstanding subsidies, which the government promised to allocate to ferry transport," the Executive Director of XRTC said.

Experts in the sector see a solution for maritime transport in the reform of its structure. The first thing is to take steps to break the monopoly companies that restrict competitiveness. The next is to define new ports and logistics centres, strategically selected according to the location of islands. "Athens does not have to be the centre of ferry transportation," experts said. They want transportation decentralization by setting new urban centres that correspond to the Aegean islands. The third step but not the last one is to make a combination of transport means, which will serve destinations that are not so popular.