Tallink carried 3,732,102 passengers on all routes in 2020, compared to 9,763,210 in 2019.
Paavo Nõgene, Tallink CEO, said in a press release: “These statistics will not surprise anyone as we have published our updates and statistics throughout the year and have been completely open about the impact the global pandemic has had on our business.”
The company has done everything it can to deal with the pandemic, he added. The group released its passenger and cargo numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020 and December, which gives an overall picture of the impact of the ongoing pandemic.
Tallink CEO: The company had to think about a pandemic
Nõgene said the company was doing everything possible to deal with the changes.
“With regular bans and travel restrictions in place since March 2020, which eased only slightly for two months last summer, the company weathered this storm as best it could. We did everything in our power to think about our feet react, change, innovate and prioritize everyone’s safety at the same time to ensure we keep sailing in 2021 and beyond. We have also done everything in our power to maximize the preservation and protection of our investors and shareholders’ assets “, Said Nõgene.
While Nõgene failed to meet its ambitious 2020 passenger and cargo growth targets, the company achieved a far more important continuation of services in both areas as restrictions continued to be imposed as infection rates rose.
Passenger numbers declined on all of the company’s routes, with some routes being suspended for extended periods during the year due to travel restrictions and exceptional circumstances.
Freight saw only a small fall
The largest decrease in passenger numbers was recorded on the Latvia-Sweden route (82.5 percent fewer passengers in 2020 compared to 2019) and on the Estonia-Sweden routes (81.9 percent fewer passengers per year), on which the regular passenger traffic had taken place either in whole or in part since March 2020.
Passenger numbers on the Finland-Sweden routes also fell in 2020 by 66.1 percent compared to 2019 and on the Estonia-Finland routes by 52.3 percent compared to the previous year.
In 2020, freight traffic fell by only 5.2 percent to 359,811 units; For example, while passenger traffic between Estonia and Finland stalled during the peak of the first spring coronavirus wave, cargo flows were kept active to allow essential goods to be transported and the volume of cargo moving between Estonia and its north neighbor rose one percent versus its neighbor the previous year.
Cars fell by almost 37 percent in 2020
The number of passenger cars carried in 2020 also fell by 36.7 percent on all of the Group’s routes in 2020.
The largest decrease was again recorded on the fully or partially suspended routes Latvia-Sweden and Estonia-Sweden.
Paavo Nõgene also thanked customers for sticking with the company, which had received a € 100 million support package from state credit agency KredEx to help cope with the effects of the pandemic. Tallink also operates hotels that have been badly hit by the crisis, looking forward to continuing the custom next year.
– –
Follow the ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and don’t miss an update!
English
Arabic
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish