FREIGHT services on P&O Ferries Cairnryan to Larne service have reached their highest volume for five years.

In 2016, P&O handled 206,700 freight units on the route between Scotland and Northern Ireland, a 7.5 per cent increase on the previous year’s 192,200.

The improvement comes after a £12 million upgrade of P&O’s Cairnryan port in Wigtownshire, where two ships each make seven crossings a day to Larne.

In addition, the company is also in the midst of a £500,000 modernisation programme on the two ships serving the route.

P&O said 2016 was the first ever year in which none of the 4,774 sailings scheduled from the port of Larne were cancelled, with 97 per cent of departures leaving within ten minutes of their published time.

The company faces competition from Swedish rival Stena Line, which operates from the Cairnryan terminal directly to Belfast, though the crossing to Larne is the shorter of the two.

Neal Mernock, P&O Ferries’ director responsible for the Irish Sea, said: “This highly encouraging performance shows that the economy of Northern Ireland is continuing to grow, notwithstanding the uncertainty heralded by the Brexit vote.”

Discussing the upgrade of the group’s ships, the European Highlander and European Causeway, he added: “This has already paid a dividend in terms of increasing customer satisfaction.”