Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Tourism, Transport

"'This time last year we reported a record monthly passenger number for the month of July, this year, I am pleased that we can report a two-fold increase in the number of passengers compared to the previous month and at least similar passenger numbers to the two first months of the year, before we were hit by the pandemic and our operations were almost completely stopped," Tallink Grupp CEO Paavo Nogene said in a press release.

"We continue to apply the same approach to our plans for the autumn and winter season ahead and are preparing our route networks and schedules for all different scenarios that we may still be faced with in the coming months. Our goal for the months and quarters ahead is to remain focused, adapt quickly to market and demand changes and continue to offer the safest, most reliable and best quality maritime transport -- both for people and goods -- between our countries," he added.

The number of passengers decreased on all routes year-on-year, most on the Estonian-Swedish route with a decline of 97.7 percent and on the Latvian-Swedish route with 94.3 percent.

The number of cargo units transported on all the company’s vessels in July 2020 decreased by 2.9 percent compared to the same period in 2019 and amounted to 29,108 cargo units carried in the month. 

The greatest reductions in the number of cargo units transported have been on the Latvia-Sweden and Estonia-Sweden routes, respectively by 85.3 percent and 15.7 percent, where traffic is currently still significantly reduced compared to previous years.

On the Estonia-Finland and Finland-Sweden routes cargo transportation, however, actually increased in July compared to July 2019, 2.4 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.

The total number of passenger vehicles transported in July this year also decreased compared to July 2019 and amounted to 118,167 vehicles, compared to 155,297 in July 2019. The number of vehicles transported declined on all routes, most on the Estonia-Sweden and Latvia-Sweden routes, by 97.6 percent and 88.8 percent respectively.

Normal route operations, comparable at least to some extent to previous years, continued only on Tallinn-Helsinki, Muuga-Vuosaari, Paldiski-Kapellskar and Turku-Stockholm routes. The Tallinn-Stockholm and Helsinki-Stockholm routes were and currently still are suspended completely and the Riga-Stockholm route only operated four limited capacity special trips during the month.

At the same time, the company operated a number of new temporary routes and several additional special cruises during the month, which helped recover passenger numbers at least to some extent. New temporary routes such as Helsinki-Riga, Turku-Tallinn, Stockholm-Visby, a number of special cruises from Tallinn via Helsinki to Aland and one special cruise from Helsinki to Saaremaa, all proved popular with the customers and have enabled travelers around the Baltic sea to travel safely close to home this summer, Tallink said.