16 October 2026

CalMac publishes CHFS3 report and plan

Today (Friday 16 October 2026) CalMac has published its first Annual Performance Report for Contract Period 1 (CP1) under CHFS3, covering October 2025 to March 2026, alongside our Annual Plan for Contract Period 2 (CP2), covering 2026/27.

The transition from the end of CP1 into the opening months of CP2 coincided with an unprecedented fleet crisis: from March to May, almost a third of the fleet was unavailable at the same time. Since May, the addition of two resilience vessels has brought greater stability and helped protect services and more than 70,000 customer journeys.

CalMac CEO Duncan Mackison said: "The CP1 report presents a mixed picture. While many journeys were delivered well, reliability, technical cancellations, customer satisfaction and islander confidence were not where they needed to be, and too many customers and communities experienced disruption. The CP1 report also identified that although early improvements were made across fleet resilience, transparency, accessibility, community engagement and environmental performance, these benefits were not yet experienced consistently across the network.

"That lack of consistency also underlines the importance of looking beyond overall results to understand the experience of individual communities. For the first time, performance has therefore been presented at network, regional and route level, giving communities and ferry committees a clearer view of local performance and the issues affecting the services they rely on.

"This clearer understanding of both overall performance and local experience has directly informed the CP2 Annual Plan. The plan turns the lessons from CP1 into practical commitments to improve service resilience, make journeys simpler and more accessible, strengthen transparency and accountability, involve communities more directly in shaping services and reduce our environmental impact.

"Since May 2026, performance has improved, supported by the tangible benefits of additional fleet resilience in managing outages and protecting services. Building and sustaining that resilience will remain a key focus throughout CP2 as we work with Transport Scotland to identify and implement measures that further strengthen the network.

"While the start to CP2 has been more positive, rebuilding confidence will depend on sustaining this progress and translating our commitments into improvements that customers and communities will experience consistently.”

CalMac’s other commitments for CP2 include:

  • Strengthening service resilience: introducing new vessels, crewing all small vessels to maximise their availability, strengthening fleet flexibility, increasing protected maintenance time, procuring critical spares and exploring additional relief cover.

  • Making journeys simpler and more accessible: improving digital services, telephony, accessibility, wayfinding and journey planning, while developing a better understanding of unmet demand.

  • Strengthening transparency and accountability: improving performance reporting, data management and visibility of delivery.

  • Involving communities more directly in shaping services: involving communities in timetable design, strengthening regional input into service planning and improving feedback routes.

  • Reducing environmental impact: implementing the Low Carbon Plan, improving fuel monitoring and supporting the introduction of electric vessels and exploration of alternative fuels.

Here are links to CalMac's plan for CP2, and performance report for CP1.