Home › Multilingual Archive Index › P&O Irish Sea

P&O Irish Sea

P&O Irish Sea (registered as P&O European Ferries (Irish Sea) Ltd[1]) is a constituent company of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). This sector of P&O is registered as based in Dover, Kent. P&O also operate a number of routes in the English Channel and North Sea and trade under the name P&O Ferries

History

P&O Irish Sea was formed in 1998 following the merger of the Cairnryan based services of P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe Ltd.) and Pandoro Ltd, who operated routes between England, Scotland and France to Ireland.

The following year (1999), the new P&O Irish Sea announced its intentions to purchase a purpose built Ro-Pax (roll-on, roll-off, vehicle/passenger) from Mitsubishi of Japan for the Liverpool to Dublin route. This would see the transfer of the European Leader to the Fleetwood route.

In 2004 P&O closed its Fleetwood - Larne services with a sale of all interests to the Swedish Stena Line group. In addition to the service rights, European Leader, European Pioneer and European Seafarer were also sold to Stena Line. At the same time, P&O announced the closure of the Mostyn - Dublin service due to low passenger numbers, this subsequently led to the sale of European Ambassador and European Envoy for further service in Europe.

Ships Operated by P&O Irish Sea

• European Causeway (built in 2000)
• European Highlander (built in 2002)
• European Mariner (built in 1978) - Until April 2008
• Norbank (built in 1994)
• Norbay (built in 1994)
• P&O Express (FastCat, official name is simply Express)
• Norcape (built in 1979) - From April 2008
• Celtic Star (built in 1991) - From March 2008
• Equine (built in 1979) - Until March 2008

Former P&O Irish Sea Ships

• Jetliner (1996 - 2000) - Now with Sri Lankan Navy
• Superstar Express (2000 - 2004) - Now with Buquebus in Spain
• European Leader - ex Buffalo (1974 - 2004) - Now with Stena Line
• European Seafarer - ex Puma (1980 - 2004) - Now with Stena Line
• European Pioneer - ex Bison (1974 - 2004) - Now with Stena Line
• European Navigator - ex Leopard, Viking Trader - Now sailing in the Red Sea
• European Pathfinder - ex Panther, European Clearway - Now with TEF
• European Envoy - ex Ibex (1996 - 2004) - Now operating on charter to DFDS Tor Line
• European Ambassador (2000 - 2004) - Now with Stena Line
• Pride of Ailsa - ex Pride of Sandwich, Free Enterprise VI - Sunk in the Suez Canal
• Pride of Rathlin - ex Pride of Walmer, Free Enterprise VII - Now operating in Singapore
• RR Triumph (2006-2007) - Now with Balearia

Routes

• Larne - Cairnryan - Conventional ferries (year round) & fast craft service (spring-autumn)
• Larne - Troon - Conventional ferry (year round) & fast craft service (spring-autumn)
• Dublin - Liverpool - Conventional ferries (year round)

Former routes

• Fleetwood - Larne (1973 - 2004, route and ships sold to Stena Line.)
• Mostyn - Dublin (2001 - 2004)
• Liverpool - Belfast (1971 - 1981)
• Ardrossan - Larne (service moved to Troon in 2001)
• Rosslare - Cherbourg (1993 - 2005, taken over by Celtic Link)

See also

• P&O Ferries
• P&O Stena Line
• P&O Portsmouth

External links

• P&O Irish Sea Corporate Site
• Larne Ferry Web - for news & history of ferry services to Larne