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IRISH FERRIES HAS cancelled 6,000 summer bookings due to a delay of the delivery of its new ship.
The company made the announcement this afternoon, citing “extraordinary circumstances beyond its control”. It says that shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft & Co.KG (FSG) has delayed the delivery of the ship.
“Because of the uncertainty caused by this additional delay, Irish Ferries has no option but to cancel all the planned sailings to France for W.B. Yeats this Summer, with the ship now likely to commence sailing with Irish Ferries on Dublin / Holyhead as scheduled in September. Irish Ferries is contacting affected customers this afternoon to inform them of the cancellations, offer them alternative travel options, and apologise for the disruption to their travel arrangements.”
The cancellations will hit 6,000 bookings, with Irish Ferries advising customers of the alternative options, including direct sailings on its Oscar Wilde ship or sailing to the UK and then to France.
Customers who choose the latter option will be reimbursed the cost of their fuel requirements from the port of arrival in the UK to the port of arrival in France.
For customers who choose neither option, a full refund is available.
Irish Ferries was previously forced to cancel July sailings for the W.B. Yeats when they were informed in April by FSG, of the initial delay. Around 2,500 bookings were impacted by the earlier cancellation.
A statement said:
“Irish Ferries very much regrets the inconvenience these cancellations cause our customers and hopes that as many as possible will choose to be accommodated via the company’s alternative arrangements and continue with their holiday plans. As valued customers of Irish Ferries, we are offering each affected customer a €150 voucher which can be used on any of our Ireland-France routes next year.”
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So much for German efficiency
Horrendous company. Always was & will be.
@Mjhint: In the interest of fairness I have to sailed with them regularly and have never had cause for complaint……. wait that was Stena
@Mjhint: How are they? They have done the only thing they could do given that the circumstances of the delay are beyond their control. I frequently travel with them and have had no issues.
@Mjhint: Are you saying Irish Ferries are at fault? They simply ordered a new ship & expect to deliver it in time as promised unfortunately it didn’t. Irish Ferries should sue the Ship builder for breaching the contract…..
@Mjhint: What a stupid comment. How are they to blame for delays in the construction of the vessel
@Philip Murphy: maybe he means to work for. There’s no Irish crew on their ships anymore there hasn’t been in years since they were all made redundant. Irish Ferries sail under a foreign flag so Irish employment law dose not apply to them. They pay their workers onboard a pittance like cruise ships in the US and they work months without a break.
@Jonathan Power:
true, and slap a load of green paint and a shamrock on the side and everyone’s a winner.
@Jonathan Power: There are Irish and UK crew on all the vessels. The majority however are Eastern European who choose to work the long periods without returning home. When you choose to work at sea you accept that you will be away from home for long periods but this has some benefits e.g. tax exemption. You should refrain from passing judgement unless you know the facts.
@Mjhint: well lovies if like me you get to sail with this lot as a truck driver weekly for 25 years you get to have an informed decision. The delays on this ship are not extraordinary & IF know there was issues but still took a gamble. Im inclined to wait for my products arrive & are tested before i commit to using them. As i said horrible company. The food is crap & over priced & the cabins are a disgrace. Was on the ferry to Cherbourg Saturday. 3 drivers to a cabin. Regularly fighting drunken toerags on it & nothing done about it. By the way Stena is worse than IF. So for the person saying i nade a stupid comment. A bit advice. Listen to those who know. I know through experience & thats something you cant buy not even in a sale.
@Jonathan Power: they trear their people terribly. The boss and management are deluded.
@Thosj Carroll: now now, mj drives a lorry so he’s an expert on everything, ferries, roads, police and anything else he may interact with while driving his lorry. Him and other lorry drivers are also the best drivers on the road
@Jonathan Power: flying under a foreign flag certainly isn’t rare in shipping it’s pretty much the norm.
@Pjaysus Hobanus: know the facts LoL I used to work on it. When it was under an Irish flag the workers were paid a proper wage and worked time for time. On the French run they did two weeks on two weeks off.
@Ohhh_reeally: yes we are. We are the highest trained drivers on the road & i commend your acknowledgement of this.
@Mjhint: some truck drivers are among the most dangerous on the road. And apart from been generally fat and surviving of fast food they’re experts at nothing
@Ohhh_reeally: ah little primrose still thinks the stork delivers everything, just another flute with a hatred for truck drivers blocking his path. Might be more in your line to go educate yourself on the finer points of logistics or maybe just maybe you might stop hiding behind a false facade
@Jonathan Power: yes you used to work on it and therefore are not an authority on the current facts. Lots of changes since you were there.
@Mjhint: you need to speak to whoever books you on and puts you sharing a cabin. There are single cabins too. Not the ferries fault of you work for a tight arse
@Jason Healy: ya I hate truck drivers. I’ve family that drive trucks. It’s mj constantly rabbiting on about how great he is and how he’s an expert at everything because he drives a truck. Anyone that constantly pontificates to others about how great he is is generally a bellend
@Ohhh_reeally: but you were the one who decided to bring up the facts, I’m all upset now, I’m going to go and cry into my appletini. Maybe you should go and ask your family how badly truck drivers are treated on a daily basis. And yes ferry companies are the same treating drivers like second class citizens, not singling out Irish ferries but all of them
@Dave O Keeffe: I’d reckon flying is pretty rare in the shipping industry!
@Pjaysus Hobanus: there are not enough cabins to give every driver a single cabin, also haulers pay an average of €450+ to put a truck on a ferry to holyhead when normally a car and driver are only 99 on off peak
@Mjhint: your spot on mate they took the money off people quickly enough. Of course loads of flag wavers ready to stick up for them.
@Ohhh_reeally: one disqualified driver as example & one fatal accident. You need to do better. I stand by my previous comment which you yourself acknowledged. We are the most highly trained drivers on the road & clearly as its been pointed out by my colleage you have a poor attitude towards drivers like IF & other ferry companies. Remember if ypu bought it one of us brought it.
@Pjaysus Hobanus: im inclined to agree but it appears that all the drivers are working for to use your words tight asses as we were all 3 to a cabin. Clearly you also have no understanding how this works. Nothing to do with with haulier as the ferry companies give out the cabins. So please try harder.
@Jason Healy: he said i keep going on & im a bellend! He has no idea does he. If only he really knew.
@Jonathan Power: cheap fags n booze.. happy days…
@Mjhint: I do know. I know all about you which is why I’m replying to you.
@Ohhh_reeally: ok hun.
@Mjhint: ah thats nice. Pontificate like a bellend and the call me hun. Your in a rotten industry that been abused by drivers and owners on a daily basis putting people at risk. No level of education or intelligence required and it shows
@Ohhh_reeally: wow my colleague is correct ypu have a hatred of truck drivers & our industry. Im unaware of the abuse you claim within my environment including the company i work for but as you are so aggrieved by our important industry why dont you boycott it & bring it to the attention of the authorities. Just remember its unlikely you can live without us although we definitely will manage without you. So are you going to be a real revolutionary or a telephone tough guy.
No hatred of truck drivers but ya you can use that to mask the fact that it’s you I’ve issue with. You can drive better than everyone, do the NRAs job better that them, you know the RSAs job better than them, you know the guards job better than them, you could run Irish ferries better and yet your employed in a job that requires no education or intelligence. Let me go out on a limb here, you hate cyclists too don’t ya. Idiot
@Ohhh_reeally: clearly a hatred of truck drivers with those presuppositions. If you’re so aggrieved by our industry have some self respect & stop using if you can. We’ll manage fine without you thanks.
@Mjhint: told ya, nothing to do with your industry. Stop trying to deflect from the fact that although you’re uneducated, working 25 years in an industry that requires no education that you may be called out when pontificating on a public forum. You can’t run Irish ferries any better, you can’t run the NRA, RSA, Garda or County Councils any better. The stop using our industry comment highlights the level of your intelligence considering you’re on here condemning Irish Ferries while admitting to personally using them for 25 years. If brains were dynamite you wouldn’t have enough to blow the wax out of your ears.
Brittney Ferries out of Cork there lads. Sure it’s only down the road
@Tommy C: and brittany always cost loads more whenever I went.
@ed w: Irish Ferries are not allowed come into Cork Ed. The lack of competition stemming from that protectionism of Rosslare is your reason for the price. Much higher class service though
@Tommy C: you can sail from Cork to Bilbao Spain now. Nice
Funny that the EU force airlines to pay compensation for cancellations and delays but don’t force ferry companies to do the same.
@Aibrean Aine: airlines don’t have to pay compensation if there are “extraordinary circumstances” outside of their control or if they give 2 weeks or over notice of cancellation and it’s the same here. This is outside of the company’s control and over 2 weeks away and that’s why they don’t have to offer compo.
@León O’Keeffe: act of Nature (or someone’s god) & strikes are the ones that get airlines off the hook. But usually cancellation issue is at the terminal and pending your carrier they either re book you or Ryanair refund and that’s it.
@León O’Keeffe: you must be on their pay role sticking up for Irish ferry’s. what about the loss of money for campsites for family holidays. Suppose that’s their hard luck, is it?
@Aibrean Aine: The EU does require compensation to be paid, its just not very well publicised. I have a bit of a overview/guide here: https://www.niferry.co.uk/ferry-delay-cancellation-compensation/
Much of this is buried in Irish Ferries terms and conditions of course!
what s going on with the boat?
@steve white: nothing by the sounds of it
@steve white: Seems to be some sort of problem on the fit-out front; wiring, furniture etc. because the ship has been structurally completed for months now.
@steve white: Yes, as a correction to my above, the statement from the shipbuilders states “Due to delays in the delivery of interior components for public areas and on the electrical system installation in the hull and deckhouse”. So they seem to be passing on the blame to the suppliers of various components like furniture, signage, cladding etc.
@Shane Corry: I believe they had to provide social housing and the kennels are a bit tight….
This is probably all for the best. Irish people should holiday at home more anyway. Who needs to go out foreign where they have the nude bathing and spaghetti bolognese and condoms. Thank God people are beginning to see sense!
@Irving Chubbie: Jaysus, the narrow-mindedness of some people. The ferry runs both ways you know. Thousands from mainland Europe travel here on the ferry every year.
@Irving Chubbie: I was in one place and they didn’t have rte, spoke gobbedegook and used different money??NEVER AGAIN
@Frank Dubogovik:
I even heard they had women loving women over there. And men wearing bikinis!
@Reuben Gray:
They do not. That’s just the Irish coming home again. Hanging their heads in shamefullness,
@Irving Chubbie: yep, six weeks of sun, sand, sea, spaghetti…and sex… without consequences – really?
@Frank Dubogovik: not getting rte must be great .To pay a licence fee AND have to sit through adverts is taking the proverbial.
@Frank Dubogovik: Closest country within easy driving distance with different money is england. They sure speak gobbedegook! :P
Checked with Irish Ferries on May 28th to see when sailings would commence with W B Yeats after earlier cancellations and was reassured to be be informed that August 1st was definite……….!
@John Walsh: what does “……….!” mean?
6000 bookings doesn’t sound like alot of sailings if the ship takes 1,800 passengers?
@Bilbo Baggins: Ye think all those 6000 bookings are 1 person families away for their summer holidays..
@Bilbo Baggins: average booking is for 4 people . So 24,000 actual bodies affected
@Bilbo Baggins: Irish Times quoting that 19,000 people are affected. Normally this would not include any freight etc. as that tends to be booked in much closer to the sailing date.
@Ollie Conroy: Yeh that’s a much more sobering number alright.
Can’t get it, can they not lease some ship?
Thats what you get for giving the job to Germany, should have bern built in the UK or the Far East, German “efficiency” is not what it used to be.
Offer alternatives is absolute bullshit. All they’ve offered is €150 voucher for next summer which is hardly useful considering I’ve already booked, paid and planned for a 2 week journey down the coast of France for this year.
@Róisín McGrath: will they cover the cost if you went with Brittany ferries through Cork…
@Róisín McGrath: No harm in trying to claim some compensation under EU rules. I have a bit of a overview/guide here: https://www.niferry.co.uk/ferry-delay-cancellation-compensation/
Much of this is buried in Irish Ferries terms and conditions of course!
That is why I fly. Why would you spend 18 hours on a ship when you can spend less than 2 on a plane to go to France
Because you can take as much luggage as you want including kids bikes, toys etc. And you have a car for the duration of your holiday!
German cars mehh German ships meh
Hope that shipbuilder has good insurance
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