Statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that total short sea passenger journeys fell 1% last year, although individual ports posted increases.
At a time when environmental issues have never been more to the fore, the total of 23.5m passengers will come as something of a disappointment, although the proliferation of routes from low cost airlines to France in particular, may have some effect.
Dover, the UK”s largest ferry port, handled 13.8m journeys ” 3% up ” in 2006 ” but Portsmouth suffered a massive drop of 18% to 2.2m passengers and Holyhead was 5% down to 2.1m. During the same period, there were also 15.5m passenger journeys through the Channel Tunnel ” broadly unchanged.
Domestic sea travel ” passengers travelling between mainland UK, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Orkney and Shetland ” fell 3% to 3.5m journeys. The DfT records also note that international sea travel dropped precipitously by 32% to 11.1m during the period 1996-2006.
P&O Ferries has robustly defended its position on the Channel however, noting: ”It is no co-incidence that the Channel Tunnel statistics went up as the sea passenger journeys went down ” this was expected when the Channel Tunnel opened and we had to share the cross-Channel business.
”But P&O is a very freight-focused company and saw an increase of 8% in this area during 2006 across its route network. There was also a 3% rise in tourist passengers and a 4% increase in tourist traffic.
”The company is carrying fewer passengers as we have fewer ships, but we”ve adjusted accordingly and we are making an industry-standard level of profitability.”