In a statement, Stena Line said it “has been working hard to provide alternative travel arrangements for customers during the busy festive period”.
Passengers and freights are being offered sailing from Dublin to Birkenhead and Fishguard. A new route from Dublin to Heysham has been added “to assist continuity of trade flows”.
Additional sailings have been added on the Belfast to Cairnryan route by Stena Line, while the company said there is limited availability on the Belfast to Liverpool and Rosslare to 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,” a spokesperson said.
This comes as Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said it was “far too late”, when asked not to increase the price of Ryanair Christmas flights to Ireland in the wake of Holyhead port’s closure.
Some flights have risen to over €600 one-way from London to Dublin, with 150,000 passengers looking to travel on the Holyhead to Dublin route just days before Christmas.
Mr O’Leary was asked this morning on RTÉ Radio 1 not to increase prices “astronomically”.
“I would say it is far too late. Prices have already increased astronomically, but it has almost nothing to do with the closure of Holyhead,” the airlines’ chief executive told Claire Byrne.
He insisted that prices have increased so much this Christmas because there are 220,000 fewer seats at Dublin Airport, referring to the airport’s 32 million passenger cap.
Mr O’Leary also labelled Junior Transport Minister James Lawless’ comments on Ryanair having 4,000 empty seats that could be filled by those stranded due to the Welsh port’s closure from Storm Darragh’s damage as “rubbish”.
“It sounds great… but no action. All he needs to do is call someone in Holyhead today,” he said, adding that it is “plausible waffle from politicians without any action”.
Host Ms Byrne asked Mr O’Leary to “leave politics aside” and to be “decent and keep it affordable” adding that “we are talking about people getting home for Christmas”.
“There are no more decent prices than Ryanair. We set the lowest market prices in every market that we operate but here is the reality – we allow passengers to set the fares,” he said.
He said that the last five seats on any flight are sold at the highest fares, stressing that the company warned about the prices already, due to a “gross shortage of seats in and out of Dublin this Christmas because of the Dublin Airport cap.”
“Here is what happens when you have stupid politicians that won’t write a letter to the Irish Aviation Authority to lift the cap,” he added, referring to his long-running criticism of Green Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, who has insisted he does not have the power to intervene in the cap on flights through the airport, which is in place for environmental and noise reasons.
Mr Byrne told Mr O’Leary that he was “conflating” two issues, which he rejected.
“I need to be able to ask you questions, that’s how this works,” Ms Byrne said as the two argued over whether the passenger cap related to the spike in prices.
She asked why it was possible to get a flight from Stansted in London to Dublin for December 23 for €97.59 and asked “are you profiting from the misfortune of people who are booked on the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin who can’t get home?”
Mr O’Leary said flights can still be bought for that date for €94.99 back to Dublin, adding that one flight from Gatwick on Friday at 5pm is £500, while the 9pm flight is £142.
“This has nothing to do whatsoever with Holyhead. You are the one wrongly conflating Holyhead with higher air fares to Dublin this Christmas,” he said, adding that the higher air fares are a “predictable” result of 220,000 fewer seats due to the cap.
“We, Aer Lingus and the other airlines applied for those [Christmas] slots, which we have got every year for the last 20 years, and we have been denied those slots due to an idiotic cap at Dublin Airport,” Mr O’Leary said.
“So stop mixing it up with Holyhead when Holyhead has nothing to do with it.”
He also said he believes the cap will be removed in summer 2025 because the airlines successfully appealed the cap where it has been sent to the European Court of Justice, where he deems the court will rule the cap as “illegal”.
When asked if he would accept that demand has gone up in recent days due to Holyhead, he said: “I wouldn’t actually.”
“You are not seeing more bookings as a result of what you have seen with Storm Darragh?” Ms Byrne asked, to which Mr O’Leary replied: “No.”
When asked if there has been any extra demand from the UK to Ireland after Holyhead was knocked out of action, the Ryanair boss also said “no”.
“Have you any understanding of the scale? We operate about 50,000 seats a day from points all over the UK to Ireland.
“Prices are rising far higher this year because of the seat cap.
“Imagine how many people sit on a ferry? A couple of hundred people drive their cars on a ferry. There are lots of ferries still operating,” Mr O’Leary added.
When asked again about having “reasonable prices” for Ryanair flights this Christmas, Mr O’Leary said he finds himself in a “shocking position” running 50,000 extra seats from the UK to Belfast, rather than via Dublin.
“Literally thousands of people will travel home to Dublin via Belfast because Eamon Ryan wouldn’t write a letter,” he said.
He also said that the airline still has 5,000 seats per day to sell, which will all sell between now and next Tuesday, ranging in price between £150 to £500.
