Tallink Grupp has today signed an agreement with the Estonian Social Insurance Board to charter out the company’s vessel Isabelle to provide temporary accommodation to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Estonia, according to the company's release.
The vessel will be chartered to the Estonian authorities from Thursday, 7 April 2022, for an initial period of four months with an option to extend the charter by another two months and thereafter by another two months, depending on the need.
Chartering the vessel to the Estonian authorities to provide urgent relief for the temporary housing issue means that the company will not be re-opening the Riga-Stockholm route on 3 June 2022 as announced in late March. The company had initially planned to re-open the route, which has been suspended since March 2020, on 6 April this year, but announced a week ago that the re-opening will be delayed by two months due to the challenging geopolitical situation putting pressure on passenger numbers and prices, making the re-opening of the route in April-May economically unviable. The charter, however, now means that the vessel planned for operating on the route, will instead be used for urgent support to the Estonian authorities and the route re-opening will be pushed further into the future.
Tallink will offer employment to the crew and employees currently working for the company’s Latvian organisation on board other Tallink vessels, including Isabelle, during the coming months.
The company will make announcements regarding the new plans for the re-opening of the Riga-Stockholm route as soon as any such decisions are made.
AS Tallink Grupp is one of the leading providers of passenger and cargo transport services in the northern Baltic Sea region. The company’s fleet consists of 15 vessels and the company operates various routes under the brands of Tallink and Silja Line. Tallink Grupp’s shares are listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange.