Travel disruption continues for lorry drivers and holidaymakers on the Easter getaway, after the ferry company Stena Line was forced to suspend all sailings between Fishguard in south Wales and Rosslare in Ireland to fill the gaps left by the continued suspension of P&O Ferries services.
Stena has cancelled all sailings between the Pembrokeshire port and the Republic of Ireland until 12 April.
The company has moved the ship which would usually serve this route to Northern Ireland after its customers raised concerns about the supply of essential goods to the region, as a consequence of the P&O Ferries crisis.
Two of P&O’s vessels – the European Highlander and the European Causeway – have not sailed between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland since the ferry operator sacked 800 of its workers without warning last month.
The company, which is owned by the Swedish Olsson family, said the suspension of P&O Ferries sailings had come at an awkward time of year when other ferries are out of service for their annual refit.
Stena Line has advised customers who were due to sail from Fishguard to Rosslare to travel from the south Wales port of Pembroke instead, as Irish Ferries will accept Stena Line tickets on their vessels.
The cancellations have come about as a result of what Stena Line described as “musical ships”.
It has moved the Stena Nordica – which usually sails between Holyhead and Dublin – to Northern Ireland, to help provide extra capacity for freight traffic travelling there from Great Britain.
As a result the Stena Europe, which usually serves Fishguard and Rosslare, has been moved on to the busier Holyhead-Dublin route, leaving a hole in the schedule.
Stena Line’s Simon Palmer said: “Unfortunately we have had to temporarily move the Stena Europe from Fishguard to Holyhead as a result of the P&O crisis, as we had to add an extra vessel for that route to Belfast to ensure continued delivery of essential supplies to the region.”
Holidaymakers and HGV drivers have faced several days of delays and disruption, as bad weather and continued suspension of P&O Ferries caused long queues of cross-Channel traffic at Dover over the weekend.
Those hoping to avoid port chaos by crossing the Channel by train were thwarted on Monday, when a Eurotunnel Le Shuttle train broke down inside the Channel tunnel.
The breakdown came as Eurotunnel said it was experiencing more traffic than it had since 2019, at the beginning of the first school holidays since the UK scrapped Covid travel restrictions.
Airline passengers have also faced Easter holiday disruption, as staffing shortages related to soaring coronavirus cases led to widespread flight cancellations.
More than 1,000 UK flights have been cancelled in recent days by airlines including easyJet and British Airways because of high levels of crew sickness.
The lifting of Covid travel restrictions has prompted a surge in demand for foreign travel, but this comes at a time when Covid-related absences are exacerbating existing staff shortages, after many aviation workers were laid off during the pandemic.
