Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden — The Ferry That Flies Above the Water

High above the dark water of the Stockholm archipelago, a blue-and-white passenger ferry appears to be flying. Its hull is clear of the waves, supported on narrow underwater wings, while small sprays and a thin wake trail behind. This is E/S Nova, a Candela P-12 battery-electric hydrofoil shuttle. Rather than forcing a conventional hull through the water, its computer-controlled foils generate lift as the vessel accelerates, reducing resistance and allowing high-speed travel using electric propulsion. The effect is visually extraordinary — but the purpose is ordinary urban and regional mobility.

The first public-service trial began in October 2024, linking Tappström in Ekerö with Klara Mälarstrand near Stockholm City Hall across Lake Mälaren. The approximately 15-kilometer route aimed to make a waterborne trip competitive with land transport, while the P-12 operated on an ice-free seasonal basis. Candela and regional partners described a journey of roughly 30 minutes, compared with considerably longer conventional alternatives. In 2026, the same vessel appeared in Waxholmsbolaget livery on a separate archipelago trial between Sollenkroka and Möja. The photographs in this project deliberately show both settings: Nova flying between islands and Nova arriving in the heart of Stockholm. These are distinct pilot services and should not be confused with a permanent, all-year fleet operating throughout the archipelago.

Hydrofoils are the defining technical feature. Sensors and onboard control software adjust the submerged wings repeatedly to keep the craft balanced in changing water conditions. As lift transfers the weight from the hull to the foils, the wetted surface and drag decrease sharply. Electric propulsion provides the power without exhaust from an onboard combustion engine. The operator has described speeds of around 25 knots and substantial energy savings compared with conventional ferries, but actual performance and environmental advantage depend on route, loading, grid electricity, operating profile and the comparison vessel. When foils cannot be used, operating limits and water conditions matter. The ferry still needs safe docks, charging, maintenance facilities and suitable weather and ice conditions.

Stockholm makes an unusually revealing setting for this innovation. The city and its archipelago contain many waterways, islands and settlements for which the shortest geographic route is over water, yet traditional ferries can be slow or energy-intensive for some services. A hydrofoil electric shuttle could connect certain destinations faster and with less energy than a similar-sized conventional craft, but whether it provides better public transport must be assessed over the full system. Capacity, frequency, route integration, affordability, winter reliability, operational costs and accessibility matter as much as the spectacle of a vessel hovering above the sea.

For Smart City Dispatch's Mobility & Transportation Visual Tour, Nova illustrates a useful principle: the physical environment can become transport infrastructure if vehicle technology, public-service planning and energy systems are designed together. Its promise is not that all ferries will soon fly. It is that a carefully targeted electric hydrofoil service may change the practical distance between island communities and major urban destinations. The project is a strong visual counterpoint to the highway, subway or aerial cable car: here the route already exists as water, and the innovation is in the craft riding above it.