CalMac has two major vessels for resilience all summer

CalMac has confirmed it will have two major vessels serving as resilience vessels throughout the summer timetable period, which runs until Sunday 18 October.

The ferry operator can provide two resilience vessels thanks to MV Isle of Islay’s entry to service and the extension to the charter of MV Alfred. With MV Isle of Islay entering service for the island she’s named after, MV Isle of Arran is the spare and will be the resilience vessel for routes on the Clyde and in Argyll.

MV Alfred is operating on Troon-Brodick to Arran, allowing MV Glen Sannox to serve as the resilience vessel for all major vessel routes on the Western Isles. She can operate to Barra, on Ullapool-Stornoway, and on the Little Minch meaning she can quickly relieve any route if there is an unplanned disruption to another vessel. She has already covered Oban-Castlebay and Ullapool-Stornoway during previous disruption in Spring.

CalMac CEO Duncan Mackison said: “Part of the long-term plan for fleet renewal involves retaining a resilience vessel, but we’re pleased to be able to offer that this summer with two major vessels ready to respond to unplanned technical issues quickly.

“We appreciate it was a challenging spring for CalMac and the communities we serve, but we’ve now enjoyed a month of relatively stable service across all routes, and we can plan with a level of confidence for the rest of summer thanks to having back-up vessels in place.

CalMac and the community of Mull will see the benefit of this, with MV Isle of Arran covering MV Isle of Mull for seven days on the Oban-Craignure service from Tuesday 23 June to allow the latter to get repairs to her bow visor.

Mr Mackison added: “We’re able to deploy MV Isle of Arran to cover MV Isle of Mull with no impact on the service timetable, no disruption for booked customers, and no disruption on other routes by having to juggle the fleet to provide appropriate cover. This is a glimpse of what we see the future being like with a permanent resilience vessel in the fleet in the coming years.”

CalMac will also use the resilience vessels to provide extra support to island events and festivals, with the ferry operator publishing extra capacity for Tiree Music Festival recently and currently reviewing options for additional sailings for EDF on Lewis. At times over summer, major vessels will be trialled on different routes to help inform what vessels can operate where.

Mr Mackison said: “This level of resilience allows us to trial different vessels at different ports, and this will directly inform how we manage proactive planning for annual overhauls which should ultimately provide more certainty, and less disruption, to island communities."