Irish Ferries announces new service on the Dover – Calais route

Irish Ferries ship the W.B. Yeats

Ellie Donnelly Twitter Email

March 26 2021 07:26 AM

Irish Ferries, a subsidiary of Irish Continental Group, has announced a new service on the Dover – Calais route.

The UK to France shipping route, which is due to launch in June, will “significantly strengthen” the capacity and reliability of the land bridge for exporters and importers in Ireland, according to a statement from the group.

It comes at a time when the company, along with Stena Line and DFDS and others have all added direct freight services between Ireland and northern French ports, allowing hauliers to avoid the UK land bridge.

Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, said: “This announcement gives the millions of customers across the UK and the Republic of Ireland who value the intrinsic benefits of the shortest sea crossing to Europe, the prospect of even more choice.”

“We believe the inclusive land bridge product will be popular with Irish exporters and will strengthen the just in time supply chain into the European Union. This is a clear signal of market confidence in the Dover route and will complement the resilient services currently provided,” he added.

Irish Ferries also intends to offer passenger services on the route. The initial level of passenger services offered will be dependent on the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

ICG reported an operating loss, including non-trading items, of €10.4m in 2020, amid a “challenging year” for the group. This is a swing on the company’s earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) of €64.9m the prior year.

The loss is mainly due to Covid-19 travel restrictions on its passenger business, according to annual results from the group released earlier this month.

ICG also incurred a non-trading expense of €11.2m last year due to changes to its pension scheme.

Revenue at the Dublin-listed company fell to €277.1m in 2020, down 22.5pc on the corresponding period in 2019.

During the year ICG’s roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) traffic increased 7pc to 335,500 freight units.