Tallink hopes to reach 70 percent of pre-pandemic passenger level in summer
Tallink hopes to recover 70 percent of its pre-pandemic passenger volume by summer 2022, the ferry company's CEO Paavo Nõgene said on Thursday. It will take several years for tourism to properly recover.
On Wednesday (December 15), Tallink said it would suspend ferries on the Tallinn-Stockholm line for five weeks at the start of next year due to low passenger numbers and high costs.
There are plans to restart the Riga-Stockholm route, but it is not yet known if this will be viable. The company does not expect a profit from the next quarter.
Nõgene said a rapid recovery of the tourism industry is not expected in the near future.
He highlighted tourism from China, which before the pandemic saw approximately 370,000 visits a year, but will not reach this level again before the recovery of air traffic.
Speaking about the coming months as long as a shockwave is not felt from Omicron or another new variant, he said: "I would like to hope that in July or August next year, 70 or even 80 percent recovery compared to 2019 can be seen. But it will be a few years before the real 2019 level is reached."
The Tallink CEO also called on the government to encourage people to get vaccinated and to have their booster shots.
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Editor: Helen Wright