Transport / Island groups more likely than tour operators to book ferry space in advance, NorthLink says
MORE LOCAL groups are taking advantage of being able to notionally book space on the NorthLink ferries than large tour operators.
That is according to NorthLink managing director Stuart Garrett, who was responding to concerns about large tour groups being able to book ferry space in advance of locals.
Garrett said there had been recent reports that tour operators could book space on the NorthLink ferries before bookings had been opened up to the general public.
However he explained that operators could only “notionally allocate” space, and that only two large groups – with a maximum of 20 cabins per group – were allowed on any one sailing.
He also said that these groups then had to book like everyone else when the schedule was opened up.
Talking about the group bookings NorthLink take, Garrett said more local groups were looking to book in advance than tour operators from the mainland.
“We see a significant number of island groups, whether that’s educational school groups, community or social groups, sports teams,” he added.
“We will notionally allocate space to these groups in the same way we would to tour groups.”
His comments, at Tuesday’s external transport forum, came after some concerns were raised locally about a tour operator offering trips to Shetland for 2026 before the ferry bookings had been opened up.
But Garrett said that any large group could notionally allocate space for a sailing next year if they contacted NorthLink in advance.
He pointed to a number of trips in the coming weeks booked by island groups, including sports teams travelling to the mainland and a group of Celtic fans going from Orkney to the mainland for a match.
Pre-empting any questions about the issue, Garrett presented statistics from 2024 to illustrate his point.
He said 173 coaches and 8,903 group passengers travelled on the Aberdeen-Kirkwall-Lerwick route last year.
That accounted for just four per cent of the overall passengers carried on this route, he added.
Garrett said notionally allocating space on the ferries for large groups was not a new thing, and had been discussed in the forum publicly by NorthLink on several occasions.
Councillor Liz Peterson, however, was concerned that the move was giving tour operators an unfair advantage over locals.
She said, to her mind, tour groups are “getting priority over islanders”.
But Garrett said operators would contact them and provide a list of potential dates, and how many cabins they were looking for, with NorthLink then advising them when they would have the most space available.
They would then notionally allocate a space, and would then contact them once the booking schedule opened to the public to confirm if they still wanted to book.
The NorthLink managing director said that boats were not being filled by these groups, and that there was plenty of room in 2026 for islanders to book.
“There’s available space in every connotation for every day in 2026,” he said.
“There’s some days in 2026 with no bookings made.”
Transport Scotland’s interim head of ferries Chris Wilcock said that “most of the bookings” they see from large groups are from islanders.
Forum chairwoman Moraig Lyall said that tourists were “an important part of our economy”, and that they could not be dismissed.
However she said that NorthLink could not allow any one group to dominate space, and said the company should “keep all these things in balance”.
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