irish ferries

Elvisjuice

Hi is Irish ferries running the swift on another route , or is the boat kaputt ? Looking at booking a crossing to Holyhead next year and they have far fewer boats running than in the past .

SimonMaher

Hey Elvisjuice,

Swift is seasonal now. Stops running in Mid-October and will return in April 2019. Should appear on the booking system in the next couple of weeks.

Simon

Elvisjuice

SimonMaher wrote: »

Hey Elvisjuice,

Swift is seasonal now. Stops running in Mid-October and will return in April 2019. Should appear on the booking system in the next couple of weeks.

Simon

ah cool thanks Simon

Irish Steve

Get the impression that Irish Ferries are very much in a state of flux right now. Swift is off for the winter, it's up in Belfast, and I think they are adding an additional mezzanine car deck to it, but it won't be back until (probably) Easter, and after Christmas, there's a big drop in the Holyhead service right through to Mid April, with only one ferry serving the route.

Not sure if that's lack of equipment, due to annual maintenance, or if it's because of the continuing absence of WB Yeats, which in theory should be delivering any time now, albeit a number of months late.

There are no schedules for the French Services beyond Christmas at the moment, which I am guessing is due to the same situation, though the other possible explanation is that they are not sure what to do with the impending Brexit situation, which could mean a big change in emphasis, depending on what the eventual solution comes out as.

Rawr

Irish Steve wrote: »

There are no schedules for the French Services beyond Christmas at the moment, which I am guessing is due to the same situation, though the other possible explanation is that they are not sure what to do with the impending Brexit situation, which could mean a big change in emphasis, depending on what the eventual solution comes out as.

Kinda of been wondering about that myself.

Could we see them focus more on Ireland <--> France prehaps?
Also, could Brexit mean the return of Duty Free on the crossing to Holyhead, and thus maybe even revitalised demand for foot passengers taking return day cruise? (Again maybe not...likely easier to take a day trip via aircraft these days)

L1011

Rawr wrote: »

Kinda of been wondering about that myself.

Could we see them focus more on Ireland <--> France prehaps?
Also, could Brexit mean the return of Duty Free on the crossing to Holyhead, and thus maybe even revitalised demand for foot passengers taking return day cruise? (Again maybe not...likely easier to take a day trip via aircraft these days)

Airline cabin baggage rules these days mean any potential duty free cruising will return to ferries. Doubt it'll be possible anyway

ednwireland

Went to book that for a weekend in North Wales end of Jan and irish ferries had no sailings.

Odd when a company thinks not running any services is the best option.

roundymac

Whats going to happen with Brexit will impact at lot on all sailings. If there is a hard border you can expect to see a big increse in freight operations to France/Spain. If there is a an agreement you will probably see the end of Brittany Ferries sailings to Santander from Cork.

Irish Steve

ednwireland wrote: »

Went to book that for a weekend in North Wales end of Jan and irish ferries had no sailings.

Odd when a company thinks not running any services is the best option.

There appear to be sailings on line now, but it's only in the last few days that they have been loaded in to the system, up until the 9th, there was no information after Jan 6th. I suspect that the ongoing delays to the delivery of the WB Yeats have caused massive issues with scheduling, as all of the ships are dry docked in the first few months of the year, they start with Ulysses, and then there are other moves as the fleet is swapped around to cover.


In theory, WB Yeats should have been well established at this stage, and available to provide cover for the maintenance windows, but they are clearly not about to risk the costs and bad PR of cancelling yet more sailings, which makes sense given that they have not yet taken delivery of the ship, and there's no knowing how it will perform once in service, the Irish Sea is a hostile piece of water in the winter months, and they've not had chance to practice their docking procedures during the quieter periods of the year, and they will be doing shake down during the worst possible weather conditions, which may be causing some concerns.

questionmark?

.

roundymac

questionmark? wrote: »

Why would a hard border between the UK and Ireland result in a reduction in services from Ireland to Spain? If anything there would be calls for an increase in services if the land bridge option of the UK becomes a road block to trade.

You'v read it wrong, if there is a hard border it will mean the continuation of the Santander route, if there is an agreement then there will be no need for it.

questionmark?

roundymac wrote: »

You'v read it wrong, if there is a hard border it will mean the continuation of the Santander route, if there is an agreement then there will be no need for it.

Yep. I did. Apologies.

Lord Glentoran

ednwireland wrote: »

Went to book that for a weekend in North Wales end of Jan and irish ferries had no sailings.

Odd when a company thinks not running any services is the best option.

Presumably Stena Line had crossings available...

ednwireland

Lord Glentoran wrote: »

Presumably Stena Line had crossings available...

a few, but not very convenient (factoring in a drive to and from donegal) and would have preffered a fast ferry but there you go. havent got the ferry in years so i guess im part of the problem

Elvisjuice

https://www.stenaline.ie/blackfriday

25% off

Johnny_Fontane

What the hell are Irish Ferries thinking? Still no schedule to France for 2019 (thats 32 days away). Can only imagine the amount of Freight business that they have lost.

I'm trying to come up with one reason not to have a schedule other than the company is going through a due diligence process in relation to a sale.

Irish Steve

The problem is a missing ferry that was supposed to have been in service some 6 months ago, but has yet to be delivered, and the early months of the year are the maintenance window, which means an even bigger issue for services, there is a shortage of suitable ships to charter to fill the gaps, and one of the existing ferries (Epsilon) was meant to be ending the charter now, so that leaves an even bigger hole in the schedules.

The other issue is that the weather during the winter period for the France route means that there are problems using smaller ships on that route, whatever about having to cancel because of weather, it's even more of a problem if the ship sails and then runs into weather that results in damage to vehicles during the crossing, which has happened with Epsilon.

From a PR point of view, the deafening silence from Irish Ferries has not done them any favours, it has been incredibly badly managed, but the delay in the delivery of the WB Yeats has also hurt them and the supplier, it was only a few weeks ago that a very limited schedule for the Holyhead Dublin route was uploaded for the Jan to April period, and there are a lot of holes in that schedule compared to what was being expected.

There have also been significant reliability issues with Ulysses, which up until this year has been incredibly reliable, but there have been several periods of problems that have caused even more disruption that would be normal, and the fast ferry is out of service this year, partly because of weather problems, but also to allow for updates and repairs that have been found to be needed.

I suspect that right now, Irish Ferries is not a happy place to be working, due to the number of problems that have happened in a relatively short period of time.

Elvisjuice

they lost my custom for next year, went with the stenaline 25% off , times not as good as IFs but sounds like a right mess whats going on there at the moment .

ednwireland

Elvisjuice wrote: »

they lost my custom for next year, went with the stenaline 25% off , times not as good as IFs but sounds like a right mess whats going on there at the moment .

+1 thanks for that north wales here we come !

BKtje

Have been wanting to book the return trip for a while now and was happy to wait for them to get their **** sorted. Middle of november I decided to go with Stena but of course all sold out now for my return to france on the viable dates.

Which leaves me two choices 1) wait for the preferred route back to cherbourg from dublin via Irish Ferries or 2) go over the land bridge and the extra 8 hours driving that incurs.

Does anyone know if the crossings from Dublin to the UK are regularly sold out? I have some flexibility with my return crossing (jan 2-5). Should I just bite the bullet and go via UK and the chunnelt or will there still be places on Dublin - > UK if I wait another couple of weeks for IF? I realise no one can guarantee anything but just looking for any advice or "general info".

Cheers

LeChienMefiant

WB Yeats expected in "early December now". It will shortly be mid-December.

https://www.icg.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Trading-Update-Nov-2018-web-version.pdf