ESTONIA. Leading cruise ferry company and travel retailer Tallink Grupp posted a +4.5% rise in passenger traffic in 2023, with the figure reaching 5.7 million.
Passenger numbers increased on Estonia-Finland and Estonia-Sweden routes compared to 2022, but decreased on the Finland-Sweden routes due to a smaller number of vessels in operation. The company’s Galaxy I vessel has been out of service on the Turku-Stockholm route and chartered out to the Netherlands since the second half of 2022.
Tallink Grupp CEO Paavo Nõgene said: “Our 2023 annual passenger statistics tell a story of slow and steady continuous recovery. When in 2022 we saw a sharp increase in passenger numbers across our routes with the last of the Covid restrictions lifted, then 2023 has been a year of more slow and steady recovery.
“We are not seeing sharper increases in passenger number growth due to some of our vessels currently still not operating on our core routes, but chartered out. This still makes perfect sense for us from an operational and risk reduction point of view as the markets and demand are not ready yet for increased capacity on our routes. Customer spending continues to be under pressure from price hikes in every walk of life and the wider global security and economic situation makes people careful.
“However, as we demonstrated last year with the addition of Victoria I to the Tallinn-Helsinki route in October, we are ready to add more capacity to our routes quickly and flexibly when we see demand and need, and our passengers are ready to jump onboard as soon as we bring back vessels to our routes gradually.
“The big positive of the year has been the addition of MyStar to the Tallinn-Helsinki route and the newest member of our fleet has proved to be exactly the draw that we needed to bring customers – old and new – back to the Tallinn-Helsinki route after many challenging years. The new ship recently celebrated its one-year anniversary on the route and is already much loved by both our passengers and crew and the green bridge between Tallinn and Helsinki has proved itself already.” ✈
