Due to the Finnish government decision adopted this week to restrict tourism traffic between Estonia and Finland from Monday, 28 September 2020, Tallink Grupp made the decision to reduce the number of weekend departures for its Tallinn-Helsinki route shuttle vessel Star.
From 2 October 2020, Star will operate according to the following schedule on weekends: Saturdays – 7.30 departure Helsinki-Tallinn; other departures cancelled; Sundays – 7.30 departure cancelled; all other departures according to schedule.
The company’s other Tallinn-Helsinki route shuttle vessel Megastar will continue to operate according to its current schedule and there are no changes.
„The closing of the borders during the first wave of the epidemic in spring clearly showed us that closing the borders to tourism resulted in an immediate and drastic drop in passenger numbers on all our vessels and all our routes. In these circumstances it is economically impossible to continue operations in the same capacity as before. We will, of course, aim to maintain the operations of as many vessels and routes as possible to ensure that the free movement of people and goods would not be halted as a result of governmental virus-blocking decisions. Similarly to spring 2020, we promise to keep all our customers informed of any changes to our schedules at the first opportunity in order to enable people to re-organise their lives and plans accordingly, if necessary,“ Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp said.
AS Tallink Grupp is one of the leading providers of passenger transport and cargo transport services in the northern part of the Baltic Sea region. The company owns 15 vessels and operates several ferry routes under the brand names of Tallink and Silja Line. AS Tallink Grupp employs around 6,000 people in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Russia and Germany. In 2019, Tallink Grupp provided services to 9.8 million travellers and transported approximately 380,000 freight units of goods. The shares of Tallink Grupp are listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange.