UK Releases 3Q Short Sea Travel Stats

The Department for Transport has published National Statistics on sea passengers traveling on short-sea routes, for the third quarter of 2004. During this period there were:

-- 9.4 million international sea passenger journeys to and from the UK, one percent lower than the corresponding quarter last year. Arrivals and departures to the UK each totaled 4.7 million.

-- 5 million international passenger journeys through Dover (52% of all international passenger journeys), one percent higher than the corresponding quarter last year. There were 1.3 million international journeys through Portsmouth, the next largest port for international sea passenger traffic (1% higher than the same quarter last year).

-- 1.4 million domestic sea passenger journeys between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, 3% lower than the same quarter last year.

For comparison, during the same period there were 4.2 million passenger journeys through the Channel Tunnel (5% higher than the same quarter last year).