Ferry travel huge revival

Travel by ferry is seeing a huge revival in the face of competition by airlines, due to chaos at airports, the latest figures from Cheaperholidays show.

Nearly 43 million passenger ferry journeys were taken between the UK and the continent, Ireland and British islands last year – a huge rise of 421,000 over 2006.

UK to Ireland routes performed strongly with numbers up from 5.3 million to 5.5 million – a 4.3% increase.

Traffic to the continent increased by 1% from 20 million to nearly 20.2 million passenger ferry journeys. UK domestic figures were stable at 16.9 million.

Figures released by the Shipping Association campaign showed a 3.8% increase in the number of cars on passenger ferries.

Between 2006 and 2007 total journeys with cars increased by 3.8% from 9 to 10.3 million.

Journeys between the UK and Ireland saw a 7.8% increase, up from 1.26 million to 1.56 million, while continental crossings with a car increased by 3.9% from 4.2 to 4.8 million.

Journeys also increased by 3.7% for domestic crossings to destinations on the Scottish Islands, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands. They grew from 3.6 million to 3.9 million crossings.

“The ongoing chaos at airports, continued strike threats, missing luggage and increasingly miserly charges made by airlines is just howlingly frustating.

“Holidaymakers who vote with their feet and switch to ferry travel are finding a radically different experience. They can take their own car, as much luggage as they like, enjoy shorter check-in times and can stroll around ferry ships which have seen multi-million pound investments that are equal to modern cruise ships.