Extra late-night Irish Sea sailings added for Christmas Eve amid soaring demand

Some sailings in and out of Belfast were cancelled on Sunday due to bad weather, causing travel headaches.

That came on top of existing problems caused by the closure of Holyhead Port in north Wales due to storm damage at the start of the month, causing freight and traffic on the Holyhead-Dublin route to be re-directed to the Belfast-Birkenhead route.

As such Stena Line has added an additional crossing each way from Belfast to Cairnryan tomorrow, departing both ports at 11.30pm and arriving at roughly 1.45am.

This is "to try and alleviate the build-up of freight and passenger traffic", Stena Line said.

By late on Monday afternoon, the Stena Line website was showing it to be sold out (as was another sailing, departing both ports at 03.30am tomorrow).

Booking space was said to be tight on tomorrow’s 7.30am, 11.30am, and 3.30am sailings, with more availability on the 7.30pm sailings from both ports.

The booking situation on the P&O Larne-Cairnryan route was unclear at time of writing today, with the last sailing tomorrow being 4pm from both ports.

There are no sailings on Christmas Day, with services resuming on Boxing Day.

The company's trade director Paul Grant said: “We understand how challenging the last few weeks have been for many of our customers, and we want to thank them for their patience and understanding during this challenging time.

"Recent weather and operational challenges have led to significant disruptions across our Irish Sea route network and for that we sincerely apologise.

“Our colleagues have worked around the clock to assist anyone who still needs to travel, and I am pleased to confirm we have added an extra 23:30hrs sailing on Christmas Eve from both Belfast and Cairnryan.

"We sincerely appreciate and thank everyone for their support and patience during what has been a very difficult few weeks across all our Irish Sea routes.”

There was also disruption for air passengers, caused by the temporary shutdown of the runway at Belfast City Airport on Sunday afternoon due to a heavy landing suffered by a plane, leaving it damaged (see page 3).

Belfast was not alone though in seeing trying times for travellers.

The weekend’s wet and windy weather meant that Heathrow Airport was forced to cancel around 100 flights on Sunday.

Several Loganair flights from Glasgow Airport to the Hebridean islands were also cancelled, and 18 CalMac ferry routes were axed.

As for when Holyhead will reopen, easing the pressure on other Irish Sea ports, Irish Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said his yesterday: “Our key focus is on ensuring that there is a resilient solution to the difficulties.

“We will continue to work with the UK and Welsh governments to help secure additional berths in alternative ports, and we expect to get clarity on the state of play at Holyhead from Stena by mid-January.”