AS Tallink Grupp has today released its passenger and cargo transport statistics for the third quarter of 2017.
The Group reports transporting a total of 2 912 759 passengers in the third quarter (July to September), which is a 2.0% increase compared to the same period in 2016. The number of cargo units transported by the group has also increased compared to 2016 by 12.5% to 91 335 units for the full quarter.
Commenting on the third quarter statistics, Veiko Haavapuu, AS Tallink Grupp’s Finance Director said:
“The third quarter of 2017 has been a positive one for AS Tallink Grupp with approximately 57 600 more passengers travelling on our ships than this time last year and a passenger record achieved at the beginning of the quarter in July when we transported 1.2 million passengers in one month alone - our highest monthly passenger count of all time.
“Nearly all our routes have seen steady growth in passenger figures this quarter as compared to the same period last year. The Latvia-Sweden route in particular has been developing positively since the addition of the second ferry Romantika to the route in December 2016 and, as a result, now showing a 71% increase in the number of passengers as compared to this time last year.
”The fact that the Estonia-Finland routes have seen a slight 5% decrease in passenger figures is mainly down to Tallink operating only one cruise ferry on the Tallinn-Helsinki route cruise service this year as compared to two cruise ferries up to the end of August in 2016.
“In addition to a steady growth in passenger numbers, we are also pleased to see that the number of cargo units transported on all our routes continues to increase. The Estonia-Finland route continues to be the biggest contributor to the cargo transport growth in terms of the number of units transported, which in Q3 2017 was nearly 6,000 units more than during the same period in 2016.
AS Tallink Grupp is the leading passenger and cargo transportation service provider in the Northern region of the Baltic Sea. The company owns 16 vessels and operates under the brands of Tallink and Silja Line on 6 different routes. AS Tallink Grupp employs 7,000 people in the region and over 9.5 million passengers travelled on its ferries in 2016.