Ferry company Irish Continental Group has reported a 10.3% rise in revenue for the three months to the end of September, its seasonally most significant quarter of the year.
Revenues rose to €93.4m from €84.7m the same time last year, while operating profits increased to €23.8m compared to €22.3m in the third quarter of 2013.
In an interim management statement today, ICG said that summer trading had been encouraging across most business sectors.
It noted that volume and revenue growth in the passenger, car and roll-on roll-off segments was partially offset by weaker container freight volumes.
Fuel costs for the three months rose to €14.3m from €12.7m due to the additional sailings of the Epsilon ferry, which was partially offset by lower fuel prices.
Today's trading update also said that in the 20 weeks from July to November 15, total passenger numbers rose by 8%, while car numbers grew by 11%.
In the Ro-Ro market, Irish Ferries volumes were up 26%, while container freight volumes for the four and a half month period were down 4$ due to lower feed traffic. ICG said that units lifted at its ports were up 5% to 73,000 lifts.
