Irish Ferries-owner sees revenues rise by nearly 6% despite Holyhead port disruption
The port at Holyhead was closed in early December following Storm Darragh, which damaged two berths.
Revenue at Irish Ferries-owner Irish Continental Group (ICG) increased by nearly €32m during 2024 despite major disruption caused by the closure of Holyhead Port in Wales at the end of the year.
The port at Holyhead was closed in early December following Storm Darragh, which damaged two berths at the port. This caused major disruption to both passengers and freight services between Ireland and the UK in the lead-up to the busy Christmas period.
The route between Holyhead and Dublin sees about 1,200 lorries and trailers make the crossing every day. After much work, the port was finally reopened on January 16.
According to the company’s results from 2024, it generated €603.8m in revenue, a 5.6% increase compared to 2023, resulting in an operating profit of €69.1m — up 1% year-on-year.
The company said its ferries division saw strong growth in volumes across all markets and “significant progress” had been made against its target of getting back to back to pre-covid levels of passenger traffic.
Revenue at the company’s ferries division increased to €433.5m — up from €412.3m during 2023 — due to higher volumes particularly on the Dover-Calais service. This resulted in the division reporting a 4.4% increase in operating profit to €54.4m.
Fuel costs were €91.6m, a decrease of €1.1m on the prior year.
In total, this division transported more than three million passengers, more than 767,000 roll-on/roll-off freight units, and 707,300 cars.
However, while revenue at ICG’s container and terminal division increased by nearly 5% to €203.5m during 2024, its operating profit declined nearly 10% to €14.7m.
The company said higher capacity costs and the weak rate environment negatively impacted profitability in this area.
The company noted the “disruption” at Holyhead Port in December 2024 had a “negative impact on our financial results”.
“The group was able to redeploy ships to minimise customer disruption and mitigate as much as possible our financial losses,” the company said.
The company said the beginning of 2025 was also impacted by the closure at Holyhead, which “obviously had a detrimental impact on volumes in the ferries division”.
“Despite that, with the reopening of the port in mid-January 2025, we have begun to see a return to a more normalised market.”
In the period from January 1 to February 28 this year, Irish Ferries carried 49,300 cars, a fall of 17% over the same period in the prior year.
“While it is a disappointing start to the year, it is over a seasonally less significant period for passenger travel and has been negatively impacted by both the closure of the Port of Holyhead and the timing of drydocks,” the company said.
“We do not believe the decline is representative of the market and have been encouraged by the recovery in our volumes since the partial reopening of the port.”
Despite the falloff in passengers so far this year, ICG said its subsidiary Eucon, which manages its container transport and shipping, had seen a strong start to the year, with volumes up 34%.
“This is not necessarily indicative of the underlying market but does offer an indication that we will see strong growth in our container business in 2025,” the company said.
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