In July, Estonian ferry and shipping company Tallink carried almost 890,000 passengers. According to the company, this is the highest monthly passenger volume since August 2019.

From last year, total passenger numbers grew by 102.2 percent.

Compared with July 2021, Tallink's Finland-Sweden route experienced the largest increase in passenger numbers, 141.9 percent.

A significant uptick was also noted on Finland-Estonia and Estonia-Sweden routes.

The ferry and shipping company said the increase was partly the result of more ships operating those voyages in July this year than in 2021, and partly due to increased passenger confidence after Covid travel restrictions were lifted.

"It took almost three years to see the kind of passenger volumes we were used to before the Covid pandemic." Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Group, said.

Finnish customers in particular have returned to Tallink ships, Nõgene noted, adding that the number of children and young passengers also increased this summer.

In addition to a boost in passenger numbers, the number of freight units carried by Tallink in July 2022 shot up by 17.8 percent compared to 2021.

Helsinki quite frequently competes with Dover in the United Kingdom as Europe's busiest passenger port. In 2018, 11.8 million passengers passed through Helsinki's harbour.