Irish Ferries cancelled 2,000 bookings on a €144M ferry that never arrived

Irish Ferries announced in September 2017 that work had begun on a €144 million flagship — the WB Yeats, named through a public competition, with room for 1,885 passengers, 440 cabins and 3km of car deck. On April 20, 2018 The Irish Times heard the new Dublin-Cherbourg ferry was delayed; a day later the company confirmed it was cancelling more than 2,000 bookings for two July weeks, upending about 10,000 people's holiday plans. Managing director Andrew Sheen told affected passengers the firm had 'just been informed by the German shipyard' that delivery was likely to be delayed.

Passengers booked for August and September were assured it would be 'plain sailing' for them. Weeks later, the story turned: the FSG shipyard said a significant amount of electrical work by a subcontractor remained, and the ship would not sail until September. Unable to rent a comparable replacement, Irish Ferries cancelled every planned WB Yeats sailing to France for the summer, blaming 'extraordinary circumstances beyond its control', and offered alternative sailings on the Oscar Wilde or a 'land bridge' via Britain with fuel reimbursed, plus a €150 voucher.

Sheen said the company felt 'very disappointed and very let down' by the shipyard: 'All we can do is apologise at this stage. We are accountable but we are not the shipbuilder — we do not build ships.' The shipyard's statement barely referenced the delays, offered no apology and did not acknowledge the disappointment of Irish Ferries' customers. The Irish Times put the debacle's direct cost to the company at €6.5 million — and argued the loss of trust could cost it a lot more.

The company kept taking summer bookings on a ship it did not yet control, then cancelled in waves — first July, then, after fresh assurances, the whole season.

Reassuring August and September customers that delivery was on track, weeks before cancelling them too, converted a delay into a credibility problem.

The fallback options — a smaller vessel or a two-leg land bridge through Britain — were materially worse than what customers had paid for.

Blaming 'extraordinary circumstances beyond its control' shifted the story to the shipyard while customers' contracts were with Irish Ferries, not FSG.

Blaming the supplier doesn't transfer the customer's loss: passengers booked Irish Ferries, not a German shipyard, and every reassurance issued in the gap compounds the bill.

Affected customers were offered alternative sailings, the land-bridge option with fuel reimbursement, and €150 vouchers on future Ireland-France routes. Sheen publicly apologised and accepted accountability while pointing at the shipyard, whose own statement offered none. The Irish Times reported the direct cost at €6.5 million and warned that the deeper cost was the trust of tens of thousands of summer passengers. The article does not report when the WB Yeats finally entered service.