On 1 May 2025, the busiest fairways in the Port of Turku will introduce new meeting and overtaking prohibition areas for merchant vessels, which will harmonise and clarify traffic regulations in the area.

The first versions of the educational videos from the DigiMar project have been released, supporting navigational safety by improving routine maritime communication. These openly available videos are primarily aimed at VTS professionals and students, and they are based on international guidelines and authentic educational recordings. The videos offer practical support for developing communication skills.

Fintraffic’s application D/S POLO is already in use in more than thirty ports. A user survey shows that users find the service to be useful for their organisations, especially in providing a situational picture of schedules. The application received an overall score of 4/5 in the survey. This year, completely new features will be launched in the app related to vessel notifications, winter navigation and more.

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 studied the value of the traffic data economy with consultancy firm FLOU in December 2024. According to the study, the value of the traffic data economy in Finland has increased to EUR 500 million, more than EUR 50 million of which is produced by Fintraffic alone (+35% since 2022).

Digitalizing Port Operations – Optimizing Maritime Logistics in the Baltic Sea
Date: January 30, 2025 
Time: 12:00 CET to 13:30 CET (13:00–14:30 EET)

The Sustainable Flow project is the first global project focusing on both the development of a digital tool and energy savings and renewable energy to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, especially in the maritime sector and in ports. A digital tool developer has now been selected through a tender process. A total of nine international service providers participated in the public tendering process, and of these Awake.AI Oy was selected.

Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services and the Lübeck Port Authority have signed a service agreement for the Fintraffic POLO Port Activity port application. Port of Lübeck will start using the application in the beginning of next year. The port is particularly known as a busy hub for Scandinavian and Central European freight transport.

POLO Port Activity is already in use at more than 30 ports and is a daily tool for hundreds of people. In connection with the launch of Maritime Traffic Notification Service NEMO, the application will also include vessel notifications in accordance with the European Maritime Single Window (EMSW) regulation as a new feature next year. This will enable vessels to submit port call-related vessel notifications via POLO both to Finland and to the EU.

Finland is introducing special maritime transport security zones for the first time to ensure the safe passage of special transports by organizing other traffic in the area. The first safety zone for special transports was introduced in the Inkoo fairway. In the future, similar arrangements will be extended to merchant shipping lanes throughout Finland’s coastal area.

In Finland, the monitoring and oversight of commercial shipping is a crucial part of ensuring maritime safety and environmental protection. Fintraffic’s VTS centres monitor the movement of cargo and passenger ships along the Finnish coastline around the clock, every day of the year. In the first half of 2024, vessel traffic has for the most part proceeded safely both along the Finnish coast and in nearby international waters.

The DigiMar project, focused on enhancing navigational safety through innovative learning tools, is on track with its planned schedule. This July, the project celebrated a significant milestone with its first international meeting, where the project's progress was discussed.