The new service option comes after a recent successful pilot of the service on the company’s vessel MEGASTAR in March and as part of the company’s drive to offer a more stress-free travel option for those passengers who need to present a valid negative coronavirus test result upon arrival. The service is predominantly aimed at passengers travelling from Finland to Estonia for the weekend and needing to return to Finland on the Sunday or Monday. The test result from Friday will enable passengers to return to Finland within 72 hours, thus taking away the stress of finding a testing location and having the test done during the weekend.

Commenting on the new service Age Vanajuur, Tallink Grupp’s Head of Customer Experience said:

„Our pilot of the antigen testing service on Megastar clearly showed us that this is something that the customers would use and want, so we are rolling it out on our shuttle vessels and while passenger numbers are still very low, we will only offer this service on Fridays. The aim, however, is that once the borders gradually open and commuter traffic resumes, we will extend the service to more days and hopefully thus also build traveller confidence in safe and stress-free travelling once again.

“During the pilot on MEGASTAR many passengers also asked us whether we could offer antibody testing as part of the service and I am pleased to say that we have now also managed to negotiate with Farmatar to make this type of testing also available on board also already from this week.”

Antigen and antibody rapid testing on board both vessels will be carried out by qualified medical personnel and passengers will be issued with a verified test result and certificate. The cost of the rapid antigen test with the certificate is EUR 39 and the cost of the rapid antibody test (finger-prick blood test) is EUR 17.

„Farmatar is pleased that, in partnership with qualified medical professionals, we are able to offer this service to passengers and help them have as hassle-free a journey as possible. The antigen tests we use are the SARS-Cov-2 Rapid Antigen Tests, developed by SD Biosensor and currently the only rapid antigen tests verified by local laboratories. The antibody tests we use are the SARS-CoV-2 Rapid IgG/IgM AB Test N40 developed by Roche Diagnostics, which will show presence of antibodies, but will not show the amount of antibodies. As travelling slowly resumes at some stage, but the negative test result requirement may still be in force for some time, then making this service available on board will hopefully make the whole travel process a bit more comfortable“, Jaana Püttsepp, Member of Management Board at Farmatar added.

Testing will be available on MEGASTAR on Fridays from the 10.30 departure onwards throughout the day and on STAR from the 7.30 departure onwards throughout the day.