Following the decision made by the Latvian authorities last Friday, 25 September, to add Finland to the "yellow“ countries list and thus requiring all travellers arriving from Finland to self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival in Latvia, the company saw an immediate and significant drop in the bookings for the popular temporary route between Finland and Latvia.

Commenting on the decision to suspend the route until next spring, Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp said:

"The decision to suspend a route never comes easy and hasn’t got easier as we navigate through this challenging year with its continuous ups and downs. However, as the newly imposed travel restrictions by Latvia have immediately and significantly impacted the bookings for the months ahead on this route, we have no choice but to suspend operations on this route to avoid operating with a loss.

"We hope to reopen this route from May 2021 according to current plans, and discussions with the authorities and various other parties in Latvia and Riga are already ongoing regarding this.“

Customers with bookings for trips on this route will be contacted by Tallink Customer services teams as soon as possible.