Brexit fuels growth in French and Irish Ports
Brexit disruption results in traffic boom at Irish and French Ports
The Irish Times reported that there have been significant shifts in traffic from the UK landbridge route towards the direct maritime connections between Ireland and France. The article provides data from January 2021 suggesting that more than half of the 150,000-170,000 annual trips that previously used the land bridge will now take the direct sea route between Ireland and France, although temporary travel restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic may also have contributed to the change.
Glen Carr from Rosslare Port said that direct sailings could take 80,000 freight units a year from the land bridge, including vehicles carrying loads to and from Northern Ireland. In France, Yannick Millet, director of Cherbourg port said “We were ready for this and set to double our activity, but the thing is we haven’t doubled it, we’ve tripled it”.