Tallink Grupp has appointed Joonas Joost as the group’s Finance Director with effect from Monday, 7 September 2020.
1/9: ISABELLE laid up
6/9: VICTORIA I will operate Tallinn-Stockholm route and Riga-Stockholm route.
13/9: SILJA SERENADE will be suspended from traffic after it arrives in Helsinki from Riga. The vessel’s return to traffic will depend on the future developments of the pandemic situation, changes in travel restrictions between the countries and any decisions regarding government support for maritime transport services.
Lay-offs Finnish crew expected.
16/9: BALTIC QUEEN to replace SILJA SERENADE on Helsinki-Riga
Early October:
- ROMANTIKA laid up until 31 March 2021 or until further notice.
- SILJA SYMPHONY suspended from regular traffic.
Tallink informed the company’s staff that it will this week notify the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Estonian Independent Maritime Workers Union of commencing further collective redundancies processes.
In addition, the company has initiated a further collective redundancies process in Latvia.
Within the company’s Finnish subsidiary, extensive lay-offs of both onshore and onboard personnel are already in place, which will continue for now either full time or part time. Nearly all 1,200 Tallink Silja OY employees are affected by the lay-offs.
Altogether, the processes will impact up to 2,500 Tallink Grupp employees
Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp, asked for support of the State. “Germany is a good example of the state offering vital support to businesses, with salary compensation schemes being extended in the country at least until the end of 2021.”
Tallink Grupp suspends the Turku-Tallinn route, which was temporarily launched in early July and which it originally planned to continue to operate throughout the coming autumn-winter season on weekends.
The route had proved extremely popular among the company’s customers during the summer period after travel restrictions were lifted between the two neighbouring countries.
„As a direct result of significant information noise and mixed messages circulating in the Finnish media, the ticket sales have significantly reduced as passengers are confused about the travel advice and nervous about a possibility of a quarantine. This has resulted in great numbers of customers cancelling their trips and requesting refunds instead,” Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp commented.
“The tourism sector will be under significant pressure until at least until next summer. Decisive action by our governments is vital and requires swift action for the survival of our sector in this pandemic situation,” Nõgene said.
Tallink CEO: Finland Quarantine on Estonians Would Knock Out Tourist Sector
The coronavirus infection rate in Estonia increasing to a point where Finland would impose a quarantine requirement would be the worst possible scenario for Estonian tourism, CEO of Tallink Grupp Paavo Nõgene told ERR on Monday.
Sea Trials for Second Electric Norled Ferry
SOLAVÅGEN is the second in a series of four electric passenger/vehicle ferries, built at Remontowa Shipbuilding SA for Norled. The ferry began sea trials on August, 1.
These battery-powered ferries will be sailing in the area of Norwegian fjords and will serve the connection between Festøya – Solavågen and Mannheller – Fodnes. At the end of June this year the first ferry was handed over to the shipowner, which entered the Festøya-Solavågen line in mid-July.
Photo Remontowa: Piotr Rudzki; Agnieszka Latarska, Maciej Bielesz / Portalmorski.Pl
Tallink Grupp’s New Shuttle Mystar Steel Sections Prepared in Poland Set Sail for Rauma Shipyard
Steel sections built at the former Gdanska Shipyard for Tallink Grupp’s new shuttle vessel MyStar, which will become the vessel’s food storage area in the future, set sail on August 1 on the barge KIKKA, towed by tugboat METEOR, towards the builder RMC´s Rauma shipyard in Finland.
Baltic SF VIII Ltd, a subsidiary of AS Tallink Grupp purchased ro-pax vessel SAILOR from Navirail OÜ.
The purchase of the ro-pax vessel will strengthen Tallink fleet’s cargo capacity, much needed after the pandemic. More operational flexibility between roro and ropax is needed, said Tallink CEO Paavo Nogene.
Ship has a capacity of 1,400 lane meter and 119 pax.
The transaction price is EUR 8.5 million.
The ship is going to sail under the Estonian flag. The vessel is scheduled to be handed over on 9 July 2020.
In July, Tallink will operate two special return trips to new destinations directly from Riga, to Åland islands in Finland and Saaremaa island in Estonia.
The sailings will all be operated with ROMANTIKA, which normally operates on the Riga-Stockholm route.
In order to ensure that travellers have plenty of time in each of the destinations to see the sights, enjoy some cycling or to go hiking or fishing, the company has increased the time available to spend at the destinations, with 9 hours available for exploring Åland and 12 hours available for discovering Saaremaa.
Tickets for the Romantika July departures will be available from today, 19 June 2020 on the company’s website www.tallink.lv.
In addition to the special cruises, Tallink will also operate four return trips on the regular route of Riga-Stockhom-Riga for work-only travellers. These trips will depart from Riga on 8, 14, 22 and 28 July 2020.
The new temporary Tallinn-Turku route launched for this summer, has turned out to be so popular that Tallink Grupp has decided to add 6 more departures to this route in late July and early August. BALTIC QUEEN will operate on this route and will operate for a further three weeks between the two cities. In total, 12 return trips will be operated on this route this summer, thus enabling holidaymakers to plan shorter or longer trips to either Estonia or Finland.
Tallink Grupp Has Signed Loan Agreement With SA Kredex
AS Tallink Grupp and SA KredEx have signed a working capital loan agreement.
The total amount of the loan limit is EUR 100 million and the loan can be drawn in EUR 10-40 million tranches. The interest rate of the three-year maturity loan is 12-month Euribor +2%.
The loan is secured by mortgages on five vessels ranking after the existing creditors.
Tallink Grupp, May Statistics
In May 2020 AS Tallink Grupp transported 75,511 passengers, which is a 91.2% decrease compared to May 2019.
The number of cargo units decreased by 18.4% to 28,948 units and the number of passenger vehicles decreased by 75.1% to 23,446 units.