Hibernia Line now operates a year-round service between the two ports, with six sailings per week in each direction. The crossing takes approximately 22 hours, with departures from Ireland at 21:00 local time and from France at 22:00 local time.

ST PATRICK (formerly SUPERFAST IX) has a capacity of 1,923 lane metres and 717 passengers, of whom 678 have access to cabin accommodation. The vessel has been chartered from Tallink for three years, with options to extend for an additional 1+1 years.

AKKA has a similar passenger capacity of 744 passengers, including 636 berths, and offers 2,563 lane metres of freight capacity. The vessel has been chartered from TT-Line on a shorter-term agreement.

Hibernia Line is financially backed by the Irish Goodman Group, which has invested EUR 20 million in the route. The company aims to carry 250,000 passengers during its first year of operation, and the service is expected to create approximately 250 jobs. Hibernia Line’s CEO, Aidan Coffey, who is also a minority shareholder in the company, previously played a key role in establishing the first so-called “Brexit-bypass” route following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union in 2020.

It was DFDS that first launched a direct RoPax Brexit-bypass service from Ireland to mainland Europe, avoiding the traditional transport corridors via the Irish Sea and the English Channel. Today, several such RoRo and RoPax services exist, and Hibernia Line’s new route will operate almost in parallel with DFDS’s service between Rosslare in Ireland and Dunkirk, located around 50 km northeast of Calais.

© Shippax