Brittany Ferries has announced two new routes from Rosslare to Bilbao in Spain and Roscoff in France. The French-owned shipping group said it will operate a twice weekly service to Bilbao from February 28th.
It will also operate a weekly Rosslare to Roscoff service during the peak season from March to October.
“The arrival of Brittany Ferries means that Rosslare Europort will now offer business up to seven weekly sailings in each direction between Ireland and mainland Europe, cementing the port’s status as Ireland’s Gateway to Europe,” it said.
Meanwhile separate figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed Dublin Port accounted for nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports and more than half of the total tonnage of goods handled in the third quarter of last year.
The seven main Irish ports handled 12.4 million tonnes of goods in the third quarter, a 5.7 per cent decrease year on year. The figures suggested the tonnage of goods handled decreased in two of the five traffic categories in the third quarter, with the largest decrease in dry bulk goods (-22 per cent).
The number of vessels arriving in the seven main Irish ports decreased by 176 (5.2 per cent).
Britain and Northern Ireland accounted for 44.2 per cent of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade while other EU countries accounted for one third of the trade.