Four prominent Greek shipowners used the 16th Annual Capital Link Operational Excellence in Shipping Forum to call for changes to the national ship registry, arguing that outdated crewing requirements and slow administrative service are keeping thousands of Greek-owned vessels under foreign flags.
Aristides Pittas, Petros Pappas, Haris Vafeias and Antonis Kanellakis told the forum that only around 500 ships currently fly the Greek flag compared with a Greek-owned fleet of approximately 6,000 vessels, a gap the executives said reflects both a shortage of Greek seafarers and a registry that struggles to match the speed of competing flags such as Liberia, Cyprus and Malta.
Crewing Rules Seen as Core Obstacle
Petros Pappas, chief executive and director of Star Bulk Carriers, said the Greek registry must operate on a 24/7 basis to compete effectively with international flags that offer faster processing for owners and managers. He argued that requiring a specific Greek crew composition is not realistic given the current shortage of Greek seafarers available to serve aboard merchant vessels.
Haris Vafeias, founder of StealthGas, Imperial Petroleum and C3is, was more pointed in his criticism, describing the roughly tenfold gap between the Greek-owned fleet and the Greek-flagged fleet as unsustainable without reform of minimum Greek crew composition rules. He said that without such changes it would remain difficult to substantially increase the number of vessels registered under the Greek flag, even as owners expressed a preference for flying it.
Mixed Experiences With the National Registry
Not all the panelists described the registry negatively. Antonis Kanellakis, executive director of Alpha Bulkers Shipmanagement, Pantheon Tankers Management and Alpha Gas, said his companies operate approximately 35 ships under the Greek flag and have found the Ministry of Shipping and the Hellenic Coast Guard responsive whenever assistance has been needed.
Pappas acknowledged the registry’s shortcomings but said he believed progress could be made in the coming years, noting that every Greek shipowner would, in principle, like to see more of their vessels flying the national flag. The contrast between Kanellakis’s experience and Vafeias’s criticism illustrated a registry whose service quality can vary significantly depending on fleet size and the type of operations involved.
Wider Forum Discussion on Fuels and Technology
Beyond the flag debate, the panel also addressed decarbonization, with Pappas noting that while regulation will shape the industry’s future, the current framework remains unclear and that a universal alternative fuel solution does not yet exist. Panelists said the cost of emissions compliance is typically passed from shipowners to charterers and ultimately to consumers.
The discussion also touched on artificial intelligence, with executives noting that AI applications are already used for monitoring fuel consumption, vessel performance, cargo loading and voyage optimization. Kanellakis said performance monitoring and voyage optimization currently represent among the most practical uses of the technology in shipping operations.
Why it matters
Greece controls the world’s largest shipowning fleet by tonnage, yet only a small fraction sails under its own flag, limiting the state’s direct regulatory reach, tax revenue and strategic control over vessels tied to the national economy. Reforming crewing rules and registry efficiency could strengthen Greece’s position relative to competing flag states and support employment for Greek seafarers, whose numbers have declined even as the Greek-owned fleet has grown. The debate also reflects broader industry uncertainty over how decarbonization costs and new technologies like AI will reshape fleet operations and competitiveness in the years ahead.
Source: ProtoThema English
