The Icebreaking season 2022–2023 ended on the 26th of May, as icebreaker Kontio returned to the icebreaker base in Helsinki.

The icebreaking season was long, the first icebreaker began the season on 11th of December. Icebreakers Otso, Kontio, Polaris and Sisu assisted maritime transport in the Bay of Bothnia and the icebreaker Urho assisted merchant vessels in the Gulf of Finland for about a month.

The beginning of winter was mild and quite easy for the icebreakers. At the beginning of March, the Bay of Bothnia froze over the whole sea area. Changing weather conditions and winds formed brash ice barriers that caused difficulties to merchant vessels in the Bay of Bothnia

This season, Arctia’s icebreakers operated for a total of 481 operating days. There were a total of 1 181 assisted ship voyages, 80 of which included towing. The total number of miles navigated over the course of the icebreaking season was 43 108.

Arctia would like to extend a warm thanks for the past icebreaking season to the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Traficom, Fintraffic’s VTS centers, Finnpilot’s pilots, the Swedish Maritime Administration and the Swedish icebreakers as well as all merchant ships, shipping companies, shipbrokers and ports assisted by Arctia’s icebreakers as well as Arctia’s other stakeholders.