Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics: Domestic sea passengers 2022

Published 26 July 2023

For the 2023 release, we are moving the publication date to August and we would welcome any comments on the proposed change. If you have any feedback, please email sea passenger statistics.

About this release

This statistical release presents final statistics on sea passengers on domestic routes to and from the UK for 2022.

Domestic passengers travel on domestic routes, including domestic sea crossings, domestic cruises, river ferries and inter-island journeys.

These statistics include all vehicle drivers (including Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers), their passengers and foot passengers on ferries.

2022 release

Comparisons have been made to 2019 as well as 2021 as 2019 was the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic started.

Headline figures

In 2022, domestic sea passenger numbers continued to increase though remained lower than 2019 levels.

Domestic sea passenger numbers increased by 26% from 2021 to 37.4 million in 2022. This follows a broadly stable trend in domestic sea passengers from 2012 to 2019, then a sharp decrease from 2019 to 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and an increase in 2021 and 2022 (chart 1).

Chart 1: UK domestic sea passengers, 2012 to 2022 (SPAS0101, SPAS0201)

For domestic passengers in 2022, compared to 2021 and 2019:

• the total number of sea passengers on domestic routes was 37.4 million, an increase of 26%, but remained 11% less than in 2019
• the number of passengers on river ferries increased by 31%, but remained 9% less than in 2019
• inter-island passengers increased by 23%, but remained 16% less than in 2019
• passengers on domestic sea crossings increased by 33%, and was 6% more than in 2019

Sea passengers on domestic routes

Definitions

Inter-island: Covers routes between the mainland and UK islands, such as Isle of Skye and the Isle of Wight. It also covers internal ferry routes on lochs such as Strangford to Portaferry in Northern Ireland.

River ferries: Figures for river ferries are collected annually from the operators. Routes are generally included in this statistical release when the passenger-km figure is greater than 500 passenger-kms. Most of the river ferry passengers are on journeys made along the River Thames. The notes and definitions accompanying this report have a breakdown of the routes that are included.

Major domestic crossings (short sea): includes all routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Minor domestic crossings (short sea): all other short sea passenger routes including routes between Great Britain and Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Domestic cruise passenger figures include all passengers on domestic cruises in the UK (with no cruise stops at foreign ports). These figures were collected for the first time in 2021 and can be found in table SPAS0201. Large domestic cruises did not previously occur but were a feature in 2021 when they were permitted under the domestic roadmap for England. This was the first stage of the wider restart of cruises following the industry’s pause during the coronavirus pandemic, with international cruises restarting from August 2021.

The total number of sea passengers on domestic routes comprises passengers on domestic sea crossings, domestic cruises, inter-island domestic routes and river ferries.

Passenger numbers on most domestic routes continued to recover from the effect of the coronavirus pandemic and saw an increase compared to 2021. Some routes have seen an increase in passenger numbers to above those in 2019, whilst some routes remain below. The total number of sea passengers on domestic routes in 2022 saw an increase of 26% to 37.4 million, compared to 29.8 million in 2021, but was still 11% less than in 2019.

Of this total, 17.4 million (46%) were river ferry passengers and another 16.3 million (44%) were inter-island passengers. The remaining 3.7 million (10%) were domestic sea crossings and domestic cruises. 81% of passengers on domestic sea crossings travelled on major domestic routes, with the remaining 19% of passengers travelling on minor domestic routes. These proportions are broadly consistent with previous years.

The number of passengers undertaking domestic sea crossings was stable (-4% to +3% change in passengers each year) from 2010 to 2019. This dropped substantially from 3.5 million passengers in 2019 to 1.5 million in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Passenger numbers started to recover with an increase in 2021, and a further increase in 2022 to 3.7 million passengers has now brought passenger numbers 6% above 2019 (chart 2).

In May 2021, UK domestic cruises were allowed to operate as part of the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions and in 2021 there were 465,000 domestic cruise passengers. This then decreased by 90% to 46,000 in 2022. This decrease is likely to be due to the reopening of international cruises, which have strongly recovered towards pre-pandemic levels.

Chart 2: UK domestic sea passengers by type of route, 2010 to 2022 (SPAS0201)

Passengers on river ferries

Passenger numbers on river ferries increased by 31%, to 17.4 million passengers in 2022 from 13.3 million passengers in 2021. This remains 9% less than the numbers in 2019.

Passengers on inter-island domestic routes

The number of passengers on inter-island journeys remained stable (-2% to +4% change in passengers each year) from 2010 to 2019 but saw a large decrease from 19.3 million passengers in 2019 to 9.1 million in 2020. In 2021, there was an increase to 13.3 million and in 2022, there was a further increase to 16.3 million (+23%).

There were 7.4 million passengers between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 2022, an increase of 26% compared to 2021.

Passengers on Scottish inter-island routes increased to 7.6 million in 2022 from 6.3 million in 2021, an increase of 21%. See the Transport Scotland Water Transport statistics for further information, including figures for individual routes.

Passengers on all other inter-island routes increased to 1.4 million in 2022 from 1.1 million in 2021, an increase of 21%.

Trends for major domestic routes (short sea)

Map 1: Top 5 UK major domestic short sea routes in 2022 by number of passengers (millions) and change from 2021 (SPAS0201)

In 2022, there was an increase in passenger numbers of 33% (compared to 2021) to 3.7 million passengers travelling on domestic short sea routes. This is 6% above 2019 numbers.

Domestic sea crossings from Great Britain to Northern Ireland saw a 16% increase compared to 2021 and is now 3% above 2019 levels. Cairnryan-Belfast is consistently the busiest domestic short sea route. In 2022, this route saw 1.3 million passengers, an increase of 31% on 2021. Cairnryan-Larne saw a 7% decrease from 2021 to 369,000 passengers.

For the first time since before the pandemic Liverpool-Douglas was in the top 5 UK major domestic short sea routes by number of passengers with 277,000 passengers travelling in 2022. This is more than double compared to 2021, is 7% above 2019 levels and is the highest number of passengers on this route since 2010. This increase is because coronavirus restrictions for entry into the Isle of Wight were in effect in 2021 until 28 June 2021 when these restrictions were lifted.

Liverpool-Belfast went from 459,000 passengers in 2021 to 472,000 in 2022, an increase of 3% and keeping it above passenger numbers reported from 2010 to 2019.

Heysham-Douglas also saw an increase from 143,000 in 2021 to 294,000 passengers in 2022, its highest level since 2007 (map 1, chart 3).

Chart 3: Top 5 busiest major domestic sea crossing routes, 2010 to 2022 (SPAS0201)

Detailed statistics on domestic sea passengers can be found in data table SPAS0201.

Annex: timeline of coronavirus events affecting sea travel

A timeline of coronavirus events affecting sea travel since March 2020 can be found in table SPAS0107.

Background information

We would welcome any feedback on these statistics by email. We will attempt to address any comments in a subsequent release.

The data tables for sea passenger statistics are available.

Full guidance on the methods used in the publication of these releases, and the quality of the data, and known users and uses of the statistics are available.

The sea passenger statistics are National Statistics. This means they are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs.

These statistics were designated as National Statistics in February 2013.

Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release are available.

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