Passenger traffic exceeded its goal

Passenger traffic in the Port of Turku exceeded its goal in 2023, as around 2.4 million passengers travelled through the Port. Viking Line’s passenger volume on the Turku route grew and Tallink Silja’s passenger figures were also fairly good towards the end of the year. As a result, the passenger numbers decreased by just eight per cent on the previous year, despite one vessels having been removed from the capacity.

The realised passenger volume means that the Port of Turku maintained its position as the leading port in the traffic between Finland and Sweden and as the second biggest passenger harbour in the country. The Port’s popularity among the passengers is based on the unique archipelago vistas along the route, the newest and most comfortable ships in the Baltic Sea, and the possibility to choose the most suitable departure time either in the morning or in the evening. The fast connection allows for a full-scale 24-hour cruise holiday or a refreshing day at sea on a picnic cruise. In addition to cruise passengers, the route is ideally suited to travellers by car and, for example, those heading further from Stockholm by train.

The competitive situation in the vessel services between Finland and Sweden changed in late 2023, when one new vessel started on the route between Naantali and Kapellskär in September and another one in February 2024. However, those vessels are primarily designed for cargo transports, so their passenger target groups are clearly different from those on the Port of Turku’s route. Thanks to the different premise, the new connections did not have a visible effect on the passenger traffic volume in the Port of Turku, and they are not expected to do so in the future, either.

Read the full annual report 2023 (pdf).

Text: Kari Ahonen
Photo: Jarmo Piironen