In 2024, VTS Centres prevented 14 vessels from running aground and prevented near misses from developing into accidents. This information is from the newly completed annual statistics on prevented groundings by Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services. In 2024, nearly 20 new vessel traffic meeting and overtaking prohibition areas and new special transport safety zones were also introduced in Finland.
Fintraffic's Vessel Traffic Services is tasked with ensuring the safety and smooth flow of shipping along the Finnish coast and in the international sea areas in its vicinity. In 2024, the company prevented 14 potential groundings: 11 of which were along Finland’s coastline, two near the coastline and one in a monitoring area in international waters for which Finland has responsibility.
“In 2024, vessel traffic operated safely for the most part. At the VTS Centres, we supervised the safe passage of vessel traffic, such as cargo ships and passenger ships, and provided information on the factors affecting their passage. All of the groundings that we prevented last year involved a situation where a vessel was heading for shallows but changed course once we notified them of this. We also assisted in navigation ten times to ensure the safe passage of vessels through fairways” Sari Talja, Operative Director of Fintraffic's Vessel Traffic Services at Fintraffic sums up.
The safety of vessel traffic was further improved during the year by introducing special transport safety zones and new vessel traffic meeting and overtaking prohibition areas.
“Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services plays a key role in ensuring the safety and smooth running of maritime traffic. The use of safety zones is one of our means for controlling traffic. In the future, we will have special transport safety zones to ensure the safer passage of special transports, such as LNG and LPG tankers, though our fairways,’ says Rami Metsäpelto, CEO of Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services.
Fintraffic’s VTS Centre will establish safety zones on a case-by-case basis when required by the traffic situation, such as congestion or some other factor that limits or endangers traffic.
In addition, nearly 20 new meeting and overtaking prohibition areas were introduced in 2024 to further increase the safe passage of cargo and passenger ships.
Satisfaction with VTS Centre operations at a high level
In 2024, the services provided by Fintraffic’s VTS Centres met the needs of their customers quite well. As many as 91% of the respondents to the 2024 customer satisfaction survey were satisfied or very satisfied with vessel traffic arrangements in fairways, at pilot boarding points and in their vicinity and 95% were satisfied or very satisfied with vessel traffic arrangements at ports.
According to the customer satisfaction survey, the data provided by the VTS Centres also met the needs of the users comprehensively. 92% of the respondents considered the shared data sufficient. The survey examined the coverage of data provision related to weather and ice conditions, water levels, on the operation of pilots, icebreakers, tugs and ports, and the condition of fairways and safety devices.
The survey was carried out in cooperation with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and Traficom. The portion of the survey carried out by Fintraffic’s VTS Centres was part of a more extensive fairway use survey conducted by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, to which nearly 300 people, mainly merchant shipping officers, responded.
Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services ensures the uninterrupted operation of foreign trade and domestic shipping on Finland’s shipping lanes. Fintraffic’s VTS Centres ensure that shipping operates safely, smoothly and without disruptions on a 24/7 basis. In addition to vessel traffic services, we develop maritime traffic data exchange platforms, smart data services and situational awareness. See more information here.
