STENA Line has cut its pre-tax loss for the first nine months of 1999 to £1.3m – down from £8.5m in 1998.
But the company claimed that the abolition of duty-free on June 30 had resulted in lower passenger volumes and on-board spending in the third quarter.
And it added that the delay in drawing up regulations to govern the new system until a few weeks before abolition had aggravated the problem.
Stena’s results include the profit of £44.6m generated by P&O Stena Line in the first nine months of the year.
P&OSL also reported a fall in on-board spending following duty-free abolition but claimed it was now seeing a recovery.
n Stena Line has bought ferry company Scandlines from Swedish Railways for £141.6m.
Ferry companies in the area will encounter problems when the new tunnel and bridge connection between Sweden and Denmark, the Oresund Link, opens in July 2000.