1981-1990 

In 1982 DFDS took over Tor Line AB 

After taking over the German shipping company Prinzenlinien in 1981 and the ships PRINZ HAMLET and PRINZ OBERON, DFDS entered DANA FUTURA into service between Hamburg and Harwich in 1982.

In 1982 DFDS took over Tor Line AB´s freight activities and six time-chartered ro/ro ships, and Scandinavian World Cruises began operation. Unfortunately there were large losses in the first year. Board and management disagreed on intervention, and the management resigned.  

In 1983 the company was reorganized. An action plan was put into effect, unprofitable activities discontinued, tonnage sold, and number of employees reduced. Operation of Scandinavian World Cruises was discontinued, and Nordana Line and Mols Linien were sold.

In 1985 Niels Bach took over the helm. In 1986 DFDS was organized in four divisions: Passenger, Transport, Liner, and Tor Line, and for the first time in five years the operating result was positive.

In 1987 the Transport Division and the Liner Division merged into DFDS Transport. The new division soon expanded, first in Sweden and subsequently acquired several forwarding companies, e.g. in England and Holland.

As part of the continued internationalization it was decided in 1988 to introduce the marketing name Scandinavian Seaways for the DFDS passenger operations as a whole.

In 1989 Quality Crew, a project to improve service quality on the passenger ships, was begun, the same year DFDS Transport began air freight activities and expanded logistics activities.