STENA LINE HAS confirmed that its normal summer sailing schedule has been restored on its Rosslare-Fishguard and Belfast-Cairnryan routes. 

Services were impacted last week when “an onboard incident” resulted in the withdrawal of Stena Superfast VII ferry on the Belfast-Cairnryan route.

Stena did not respond to a request for information about what happened. However, reports say that a fire broke out in the engine room of a ship docked in Belfast harbour on Wednesday morning, which led to services being diverted and cancelled. 

The ship returned to service for the 7:30pm trip from Belfast to Cairnryan yesterday and the Stena Nordica ferry resumed service this morning on Rosslare to Fishguard at 8:15. 

All sailings on both routes are now operating to schedule, the company said.

Stena Line has put a “comprehensive compensation package” in place to support customers impacted by the sailing delays and cancellations.  

Paul Grant, Stena Line trade director for the Irish Sea said: “Firstly I would like to apologise to all our travel and freight customers who have been impacted by the interruptions to our sailing schedules over the last week.  

“We fully appreciate that we are in the busy holiday period and understand the impact that changes to our sailing schedules have for our customers. 

“Our staff have been working around the clock to support those customers impacted by offering a range of solutions including accommodation on later sailings, rebooking or transfers to other ferry operators.  

“We are looking forward to getting our services back to normal and once again I would like to apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience caused to our customers.”