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Displaying items by tag: Record Day

On Saturday, 13 November, it was a record day at Rosslare Europort, says Glenn Carr.

Over the course of the day, almost 1,000 units of freight travelled through the ferry hub, according to the port’s general manager, making it one of the busiest days in the history of the Wexford port.

This level of activity is something that Carr and his team have had to get used to in 2021.

So far this year, the volume of cargo travelling through the Wexford port has ballooned by 55%, according to Carr. Because of an increase in direct trade with Europe, continental freight volumes — which have skyrocketed by 378%, Carr says — are driving the overall numbers.

Once upon a time not long ago, Stena Line’s Fishguard and Irish Ferries’ Pembroke services, both in Wales, accounted for most of Rosslare’s business.

Much more the Journal.ie has to report on the dramatic fortunes of the ferryport.

The record in trade volumes preceded as Afloat adds, Brittany Ferries recently announced new route, Rosslare-Le Havre which began operations from the French port on Friday, 12 November. This involved the freight-only ro-ro Contentin to arrive at Rosslare Europort the next day.

Contentin is the French operator's custom-built freighter which can be seen above berthed at the Irish port upon completion of that inaugural crossing from Le Havre, Normandy.  

Published in Rosslare Europort

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).