NEL Lines

NEL Lines is a publicly-owned passenger shipping company based in Mytilene, Lesbos. NEL Lines was founded on August 5th 1972 under the name of Maritime Company of Lesvos S.A. (Ναυτιλιακή Εταιρία Λέσβου Α.Ε. ) with the objective of linking Lesvos, Chios and Limnos with the Greek mainland. Services started in 1973 with F/B Sappho. The ship originally operated the route Pireas-Chios-Mytilene thrice weekly.

The following year, the route Mytilene-Lemnos-Thessaloniki was inaugurated. A few years later a second ship was added, "Homerus". Homerus inaugurated the Mitilini-Limnos-Kavala route in 1978.

During the 1980s, Nel purchased more ships.These were:"Alkeos", which has operated the Piraeus-Mytilene direct route, the Lavrio-Agios Efstratios-Lemnos-Kavala route, the Mytilene-Lemnos-Alexandroupolis route, among others. The "Arion", which served the Pireas-Cyprus-Israel route and was torpedoed in Haifa. The "Odysseas Elitis" became the first and last ship owned by NEL to link Greece with Italy. The "Agios Rafael" was a primarily vehicle-carrying ship. Due to its low ceilings and steep staircases through the years it gained a dreadful reputation, along with the Alkeos.

In May of 2005 a controlling stake of 20% in NEL Lines was acquired by a new management team from ANEK LINES.

References

• NEL Lines - company website