EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Tourism, Transport

The number of cargo units carried during the month grew 10% year over year to 28,315 and of vehicles 0.6% to 87,700.

The number of passengers carried in the final quarter of the year was 2.3 million, 4% more than during the same three-month period in 2016. The number of transported cargo units increased 14.1% to 97,300 units but the number of passenger vehicles decreased 0.8% to 254,000 year over year, the company told the stock exchange.

Passengers carried between Estonia and Finland in December numbered 435,500, marking an increase of 5.5%, and cargo units numbered 17,900, up 12.3%. The number of passenger cars meanwhile declined 0.4% to 67,000. In the fourth quarter, the number of passengers on the Estonia-Finland route grew 2.6% to 1.2 million, cargo units were up 16.1% at 61,700, and the number of passenger cars dropped 2.4% to 195,900.

On the Estonia-Sweden route the number of passengers in December increased 6.6% year over year to 86,500 and the number of passengers in the final quarter of the year grew 6.1% to 236,700. The number of cargo units decreased by 2% to 3,300 in December but grew 1.2% to 11,500 in the final quarter of the year.

Of passenger cars respectively 4.3% and 4.9% fewer were carried on the Estonia-Sweden route in December and the final quarter of the year.

On the Finland-Sweden route the number of passengers grew 4.3% to 232,300 in December and 1.4% to 685,100 in the final quarter of the year. The number of cargo units grew by 5.8% over year for December and by 7.3% for the fourth quarter to respectively 5,980 and 20,100. Of cars 9,963 were carried in December, 10.1% more than in December 2016, and 26,288 in the fourth quarter, 2.6% more than in the fourth quarter of 2016.

On the Latvia-Sweden route the number of passengers grew 19.5% to 60,860 in December and 26.9% to 167,100 in the final quarter of the year. Cargo units carried on that route grew 44.3% over year to 1,154 units in December and 89.3% to 4,116 units in the final quarter.

Cars carried on the Latvia-Sweden route numbered 5,600 in December and 16,100 in the fourth quarter, marking increases of respectively 2.5% and 22%.

In the disclosure of passenger and cargo statistics to the stock exchange, Tallink highlighted several events that had an effect on the company's operations in the reporting period. Specifically, on Jan. 29, 2017 the new LNG fast ferry Megastar started operating Tallink Shuttle service on the Tallinn-Helsinki route, replacing the fast ferry Superstar. In December 2016, the cruise ferry Silja Europa started operating on the Tallinn-Helsinki route, replacing the cruise ferry Baltic Queen.

In December 2016, the cruise ferry Baltic Queen started operating on the Tallinn-Stockholm route, replacing the cruise ferry Romantika. Cruise ferry Romantika started operating on Riga-Stockholm route in December 2016 as a second ship next to the cruise ferry Isabelle.