Sweden's Stena Line has sacked 950 workers as the coronavirus hit its Baltic Sea services.
The redundancies include both crew and onshore staff, it said.
Passenger traffic has been sharply down, with trips between Sweden, Denmark, Poland Germany and Latvia virtually non-existent due to travel restrictions imposed by regional governments to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.
The lay-offs involve seafarers on its nine Swedish-flagged ropaxes, as well as employees in all the ports they call at.
"With the situation we are in now, we have no other option but to adjust the business and our costs to mitigate the negative effects and ensure the continued freight business," said chief executive Niclas Martensson.
Stena Line is conducting a review of all its activities and does not rule out further cuts or changes to schedules.
UK and Ireland operations have not yet been hit by redundancies.
A spokesman said: "Stena Line is currently evaluating its overall operations in all regions due to the sharp decline in travel bookings."
The outbreak has hit the ferry sector hard across Europe as governments begin to clampdown on travel to slow the spread of the virus.
Brittany Ferries has cancelled several services between the UK and France as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to the BBC.
Earlier this week, Greece suspended ferry service to Italy as a result of the mounting crisis across the Adriatic.
Denmark reacted quickly over the weekend to put in place safeguards for employees.
The government agreed to pay up to 75% of salaries of workers who might otherwise be sacked.
The measure will last until June.
Eric Martin contributed to this story.
