{"id":5227,"date":"2012-11-21T17:13:07","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T16:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=5227"},"modified":"2012-11-21T17:14:54","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T16:14:54","slug":"stena-line-celebrates-1st-anniversary-of-new-ferry-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2012\/11\/stena-line-celebrates-1st-anniversary-of-new-ferry-route\/","title":{"rendered":"STENA LINE CELEBRATES 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF NEW FERRY ROUTE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passenger figures rise 9% and freight 60% in first year of service<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Stena Line Route Director Paul Grant joined Senior Master George Combe on the bridge of Stena Superfast VII to help celebrate the 1st anniversary of the Belfast-Cairnryan route. On the 21st November 2011, Stena Line began services on its new route by introducing two of the largest ferries ever to sail between Northern Ireland and Scotland. The \u00a3200M investment, one of Stena Line\u2019s biggest in Europe also provided a new state-of-the-art Loch Ryan Port at Cairnryan, one of the most modern port facilities in the UK. One year on, despite challenging economic conditions the new route has delivered a strong 9% year on year increase in passenger numbers and a 60% increase in freight volumes. The new route has now firmly established itself as an increasingly important passenger and freight link between Northern Ireland and Scotland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ON the 21st<\/sup> November 2011, Stena Line began services on its new Belfast- Cairnryan route by introducing two of the largest ferries ever to sail between Northern Ireland and Scotland.\u00a0 The \u00a3200M investment, one of Stena Line\u2019s biggest in Europe also provided a new state-of-the-art Loch Ryan Port at Cairnryan, one of the most modern port facilities in the UK.<\/p>\n

One year on, despite challenging economic conditions the new route has delivered a strong 9% year on year increase in passenger numbers and a 60% increase in freight volumes.\u00a0 The new route has now firmly established itself as an increasingly important passenger and freight link between Northern Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\n

Paul Grant, Stena Line\u2019s Route Director for the Belfast \u2013 Cairnryan service said: \u201cWhen we announced our decision to invest \u00a3200M in the new Belfast-Cairnryan route, trading conditions were and remain tough but as we have always said, we take the long term view when we make investments of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m delighted to report that after our first year of trading on the new route, despite difficult economic conditions, the new route has now firmly established itself as an increasingly important passenger and freight link between both countries. Our new port and ships have created new flows of traffic in both the passenger and freight market and while 2013 will remain challenging I\u2019m confident that we can continue to make steady progress next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stena Line operates up to 6 daily return sailings between Belfast- Cairnryan with its Superfast vessels completing the crossing in 2hrs 15 mins.\u00a0 During 2012, Stena Line has also improved its reliability and punctuality, a key element for customers when deciding which ferry company to use.<\/p>\n

Paul Grant added: \u201cThe results have shown that when do you do offer something more than the competition whether it be a Nordic Spa with onboard saunas, relaxing family cabins, free-wi fi, high-end onboard shopping or fine dining options from celebrity chef Kevin Woodford then the market does respond positively. \u00a0\u00a0We have tried to take ferry travel to a new level and the figures show that this ambition is being realised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have a formidable mix of modern ports and ships on the Belfast-Cairnryan route, we are concentrating our efforts on trying to drive our onboard customer service levels even higher.\u00a0 We have invested heavily in improving key elements of our \u2018customer experience\u2019 and will continue this commitment to provide the best in class customer service throughout 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passenger figures rise 9% and freight 60% in first year of service ON the 21st November 2011, Stena Line began services on its new Belfast- Cairnryan route by introducing two of the largest ferries ever to sail between Northern Ireland and Scotland.\u00a0 The \u00a3200M investment, one of Stena Line\u2019s biggest in Europe also provided a … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5231,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5227\/revisions\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}