Following the highly successful launch of the Baltic Queen earlier this year, AS Tallink Grupp reports that the group's fleet of ferry/cruise ships saw passenger numbers rise by 12.4% to 1,829,367 in its third financial

quarter between March and May and by 11% in the month of May alone to 657,335 passengers.

The company reports that growth of passenger numbers – as well as passenger vehicles – was seen on all of its major routes. During the third quarter Tallink reports that it carried 115, 879 (+44%) passengers on the Latvia-Sweden route; 195, 599 (+2,5%) on its Estonia-Sweden service; a further 824, 759 (+14%) passengers on its Finland-Estonia route and 672, 573 (+11%) on the company's Finland-Sweden service.

On Tallink's Germany-Finland service, the ferry/cruise line company also transported 20,557 passengers (-29 %) in the third quarter and the shortfall was caused by only two vessels operating on this route, compared to three during the same period last year.

Taking the month of May in isolation, Tallink reports that it transported a total of 657, 335 (+11%) passengers, 71, 195 passenger vehicles (+34%) and 20, 250 (-27%) cargo units.

Magnus Skj?rshammer, Director, Business Development, Duty Free Sales, said: ‘Summer is here, and it seems like we are approaching a good year, with passenger numbers increasing. We did see an increase in traffic 10 years ago, during the financial turmoil that was then. Of course the current crisis is more on a global level, so we did not really know what to expect. However, it does seem that we have benefited in terms of passenger numbers.

‘Sales have remained more or less on the same level, which means that passengers are not spending the same amount while shopping as before. But considering the situation for many other operators, Tallink is satisfied with the current results.’The financial year of AS Tallink Grupp starts on 1st of September and ends on 31st of August.