"We stop crossing - thank you!" writes Birka Cruises on her website.

- It is very sad, says Marcus Hammarström, Marketing Manager at Birka Cruises to TT.

The financial consequences of the pandemic are the main reason, according to the company, in combination with an uncertainty as to how travel will develop in the future.

Effect of pandemic

Trade union negotiations involving 509 employees are now underway, according to Åland's media. 43 of these employees work at the head office in Stockholm and 466 people work aboard.

- The reason is that in conjunction with the corona pandemic, we had to suspend our traffic. We have been without revenue since then, says Marcus Hammarström, Marketing Manager at Birka Cruises.

- The plans have been to resume traffic as soon as possible. But in the assessment of doing a profitable business, we see that it is not possible to break this negative trend in the foreseeable future, he continues.

Birka Cruises has been operating for 49 years. The Eckero Group also operates passenger and car ferry services on the Åland Sea and in the Gulf of Finland. The plan is to sell the Birka Stockholm vessel.

"Heavy message"

This crisis has hit very hard against all travelers - and this applies to flights as well as other things, he notes.

- What has been critical for us compared to other shipping companies is that we are a purely cruise company, that you cruise for pleasure. So in our case it is tougher than several other shipping companies that have more other branches, says Marcus Hammarström.

Tallink Silja also announces cuts, Aftonbladet reports. The Finnish government's stop for Swedish visitors makes the situation more difficult. Nearly 300 Swedish employees, mainly personnel on the Galaxy and Symphony vessels are dismissed.

- It is an incredibly heavy message to give and people are sad, we do not want anything more than to see full crew of full vessels, but it does not look like this at the moment, says Erika Janson, communications manager at Tallink Silja, to Aftonbladet. At the same time, she points out that the company notices a certain brightening.