While ferry line Tallink Group had a better September this year than in 2020, while the third quarter, July-September, as a whole saw a poorer performance this year than last year, meaning recovery to pre-coronavirus levels was till some way off.
Tallink Grupp CEO Paavo Nogene said: “The quarter periods in 2020 and 2021 have been almost like a mirror image of one another: whereas the first-month-and-a-half of the third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020) were fairly positive after the lifting of restrictions, with the second half of the quarter became negative with the looming second wave of the COVID pandemic, then Q3 of this year was fairly reserved in terms of passenger numbers in the first couple of months, due to many ongoing restrictions, only now in September are we seeing some increases in numbers and also in near-future bookings.”
“However, the numbers are still far off from what we were used to in this quarter in the pre-COVID times and we don’t foresee great increases in passenger numbers before next spring or summer. This is the reality we face and it is clear that the travel industry will have another very difficult low autumn-winter season ahead,” Nogene continued. “While we must keep our sights on next year and we make plans for a return to traveling after the winter, we must ensure we optimize our operations as much as possible now for the low season ahead and ensure that all our activities over the next five months until spring 2022 are as efficient as possible.” (ERR/Business World Magazine)
