Fresh blow to Guinness drinkers as Holyhead port will keep closed till January – foods and drinks commerce will likely be hit and 150,000 passengers face chaos making an attempt to get to Ireland for Christmas
Holyhead Port will remain closed until mid-January at the earliest with all ferry sailings cancelled up to that date, impacting up to 13,000 passengers a day.
The Welsh port shut on December 7 after sustaining infrastructure damage during Storm Darragh, and has now confirmed it will not reopen until at least January 15.
Post and deliveries, many of them filled with Christmas presents as well as products from pharmaceuticals to food, have been seriously affected as thousands of trailers filled with goods remained stuck in the UK.
Deliveries of Guinness to Britain could also be hit, weeks after Diageo said supplies to England, Scotland and Wales would be limited amid a surge in demand – fuelled by the stout becoming popular among young people and women in recent years.
And now with just one week until Christmas, passengers face serious disruption as they scramble to return home. Eight daily sailings from Holyhead to Dublin usually transport up to 13,000 passengers and will not restart for another 28 days at least.
Some 150,000 passengers in Britain will be trying to get to Ireland for Christmas, and many booked in from Holyhead have been forced to find costly alternative routes.
All ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead are currently cancelled, affecting thousands of Irish people travelling home from the UK for Christmas.
Kim Ward, a paediatric nurse from Co Monaghan, has had to make costly alternative arrangements to travel home with her dog Ziggy. The 28-year-old, who lives in London, had initially planned to travel by train and ferry from Holyhead to Dublin.
Kim Ward, a paediatric nurse from Co Monaghan, pictured with her partner Shannon Foley, has had to make costly alternative arrangements to travel home with her dog Ziggy
An aerial view shows lorry freight trailers parked on the quayside at Holyhead Port in 2020
After learning that she could not travel from Liverpool as a foot passenger, Ms Ward and her partner Shannon Foley decided to drive to Liverpool to catch a ferry with Ziggy.
‘I’ve just been told I will be put on a boat’
Pete Reid, a project manager who is also from Co Monaghan, was due to travel home to Ireland via Holyhead with his wife Emma.
Pete Reid was due to travel home to Ireland via Holyhead with his wife Emma
Mr Reid, 40, who lives in London, has been offered an alternative crossing by Irish Ferries from Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, Wales, to Rosslare in Co Wexford.
‘I had to cancel my hotel in Holyhead and had to rebook a hotel in South Wales to get to the port in Fishguard,’ Mr Reid said.
Pete Reid, pictured with his wife Emma
‘I’m going to drive down Friday night, sleep overnight in Wales, and then cross over the next day.
‘I’ve just been told I will be put on a boat, I don’t know what time or what day. They haven’t told us anything.’
Ms Foley, also a nurse, has borrowed her cousin’s car and will drop them in Dublin before crossing back to Liverpool and driving back to London to work.
‘I was supposed to go on December 21. It’s normally a 12-hour journey, door to door, so I get the train from London and travel as a foot passenger,’ Ms Ward said.
‘I have a pet cabin to bring the dog into, because over the years I put him into the kennels and he’s just been traumatised.
‘I called Stena Line multiple times over the last few days to see if there was any way that I could get an earlier ferry on one of the other routes from either Fishguard or Liverpool.
‘They wouldn’t let me because it wasn’t confirmed for Saturday that the sailings weren’t going.’
‘Myself and my partner are both nurses and we were lucky to get this Christmas off,’ she said. ‘We are planning on borrowing my partner’s cousin’s car and driving to Liverpool. She’s added her name to his insurance.
‘She’s going to cross to Dublin to drop me and the dog off, then go from Dublin to Liverpool again and she’s got to travel back to London again as she has to finish her shifts before Christmas. She will then fly to Ireland on Christmas Eve.’
She added: ‘I’ve worked so many Christmases so when you actually have the opportunity to have a Christmas off, you don’t know how many years it’s going to come before you have another one off, you have to spend it with your family. It’s very costly but it will be worth it.’
Ms Ward said the weather could not be helped but she criticised the communication from Stena Line which she said could have been better.
Irish travel expert Eoghan Corry told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Most people have sat on their bookings thinking they were delayed.
‘Only now are people getting notices saying they will be cancelled. Now we will see a rush for alternatives. It is going to be a stressful night for everyone trying to find other bookings.’
He continued: ‘People may get the ferry as they don’t like to fly. They like to drive and the extra luggage allowance. So it won’t be a seamless transition.
‘There aren’t other great options. No ports can load as quickly as Holyhead can. All the others have problems. There’s no immigration facilities at Birkenhead. Scotland and Belfast have the most sailings but people coming from the south of England will have to go far.’
Holyhead Port is pictured in March during a visit by Sir Keir Starmer (right)
A ferry operated by Stena Line arrives from Dublin into the Holyhead Port in February 2023
Holyhead’s closure follows damage to the Terminal 3 berth on December 6 during Storm Darragh.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary denies £500 Christmas flights are due to port closure
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has denied the prices of Christmas flights from the UK have risen to £500 one-way because of the ongoing closure of Holyhead Port, blaming the Dublin Airport passenger cap instead.
The Welsh government had urged airlines not to hike prices for people who were no longer able to travel home by ferry.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary
But prices for some flights between London and Dublin this week and next soared beyond £500.
Mr O’Leary told Newstalk’s The Pat Kenny Show: ‘This Christmas at Dublin Airport, the airlines will offer 220,000 fewer seats than last year – that’s a cut of about 10 per cent in seats.
‘Airfares are already 20 to 25 per cent higher than last year. We predicted that some flights would be charging £500 one-way, and that’s already sadly come to pass.’
He claimed it was ‘entirely avoidable’ and blamed Dublin Airport having a 14.4million seat capacity limit for the winter 2024/25 season – from October 26, 2024 to March 29, 2025.
Ryanair said £500 one-way air fares were now on flights from London Gatwick and Stansted to Dublin this Friday, while prices on flights from London to Dublin across the weekend of this Friday until next Monday were ‘rising rapidly’.
A joint statement from the Irish and Welsh governments said: ‘This was not the news any of us wanted to hear. However, it provides clarity so that contingencies can be put in place.
‘We know that this will cause some anxiety for people who are planning to travel to and from Ireland to be reunited with their loved ones this Christmas. It is also a very anxious time for businesses in north Wales and Ireland and for the community of Holyhead.’
They said they are ‘pressing ahead’ with contingency plans at ‘pace’.
In a statement, Stena Line, which owns the port, said it had been ‘working hard to provide alternative travel arrangements for customers during the busy festive period’.
‘Stena Line is offering sailings for passengers and freight from Dublin to ports in Birkenhead and Fishguard.
‘In addition, a new freight route from Dublin to Heysham has been added to assist continuity of trade flows.
‘The company has also added additional sailings on the Belfast-Cairnryan route this weekend. Currently there is limited availability on the Belfast-Liverpool and Rosslare-Fishguard routes.
‘Stena Line would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and assure customers that the company is doing everything in its power to mitigate the effects of the closure on passenger and freight traffic.
‘Customers are currently being contacted and affected passengers are advised to amend their booking online free of charge or through the Contact Centre on 0344 770 7070 (UK)/ + 353 1 907 5555 (ROI).’
Irish Ferries said it is currently contacting customers affected and also ‘working with UK ports with a view to adding further sailings to/from Ireland’.
Holyhead port previously said it would remain closed until Friday, although there were strong doubts it would reopen as planned. Fears are now mounting that it will remain closed until spring.
Darren Murphy, managing director of BM Transport, a haulage company based in Co Monaghan, still has 60 trailers stuck at Holyhead.
Backlogs at other ports mean they won’t be moved until after Christmas.
He told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘The certainty is welcome but it is disastrous. There is no sign of any real help in increased shipping space to make up the shortfall.
‘While the Christmas break might enable catch-up on freight backlog, we are looking at more of the same from January 2.’
MailOnline has contacted Diageo for comment.
