Tallink Grupp has today announced that it will delay the reopening of the company’s Riga-Stockholm route, which has been suspended due to the COVID pandemic for two years and was due to be re-opened on 6 April this spring, until 3 June 2022.

The decision to delay the re-opening was made due to low booking volumes among passengers for the months of April and May resulting from the current geopolitical uncertainties, as well as the significant hike in fuel prices globally. Due to the current situation it is not possible to operate the Riga-Stockhholm route profitably in April and May.

„We were fully prepared and ready to re-open the Riga-Stockholm route on 6 April after the long two-year suspension of the route’s operations. Our vessel Isabelle went through the regular maintenance at the start of the year and sailed back toi ts home port Riga, our sales teams on various shores have actively promoted and sold tickets for the route, the Latvian government has recently announced that the majority of the COVID restrictions that have been in place will be removed. All the signs were indicating that we have now finally reached the point where it would be possible to re-open this route without immediately suffering further losses and to restore maritime traffic between Latvia and Sweden. But the war that started at the end of February has created a situation where we have once again had to reassess our plans and has once again forced us to take the difficult decision to delay the re-opening of the route by a few months, in the hope that the situation will have changed by the beginning of summer this year,“ Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp said.

Tallink Grupp will contact all the passengers affected by this decision and offer them alternative options fort ravelling or for cancelling their bookings.