Moby Lines

Moby Lines was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino (NAVARMA) by Achille Onorato, starting services from Sardinia to the offshore islands with the small ferry M/S Maria Maddalena, bought from Denmark. The name Moby Lines was officially adopted in the 1990s.

Moby Lines operates ferries and cruise ferries between the Italian and French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. Its principal routes run from Livorno, Piombino, Genoa and Civitavecchia to Olbia, Golfo Aranci and Porto Torres on Sardinia. To Corsica, ferries sail from Livorno, Piombino and Genoa to Bastia and Ajaccio. The Santa Teresa Gallura-Bonifacio route takes about 50 minutes.

The fleet comprises 16 ships. Since 1996 the fleet has been expanded with newer, larger and faster vessels, including the fast cruise ferries Moby Wonder, Moby Freedom and Moby Aki. In 2020, construction began on two newbuilds at Guangzhou Shipyard, each 238 metres long and around 69,500 GT, for the 7-9-hour Livorno-Olbia crossing. The ships carry Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters as exterior livery.

Moby Lines acquired Lloyd Sardegna in 2006, Toremar in 2012 and Tirrenia in 2015, forming the Onorato Group. Today the group operates 38 ships across 33 ports, with over 41,000 departures a year. In 1991, the Moby Prince disaster was the worst incident involving the Italian merchant navy since the Second World War, claiming 140 lives.