Northlink ferry services between Aberdeen, Kirkwall and Lerwick and on the Pentland Firth are set to return to normal over the next few days. By Sunday night it is anticipated that normal service will have been resumed on all routes.

The imminent return from annual dry-dock inspection of MV Hjaltland to join her sister ship MV Hrossey means that the traditional ‘two-boat’ service can resume on the Aberdeen – Kirkwall – Lerwick route.

Similarly, the return today of MV Hamnavoe from her trip to Bergen with 157 stranded travellers on board means that – as announced yesterday – she will operate an unprecedented service from Aberdeen to Stromness this evening and will be ready to resume normal service on the Pentland Firth between Stromness and Scrabster at 06.30 tomorrow (Friday) morning.

With the return of MV Hjaltland to the NorthLink fleet the emergency day-and-night shuttle service operating between Lerwick and Aberdeen, which also eased the plight of travellers affected by the volcanic ash no-fly restrictions, will come to an end on Friday night.

Hjaltland is due to leave dry-dock in Birkenhead this evening and will slot into the schedule on Saturday with a northbound Aberdeen – Kirkwall – Lerwick service which is due to depart Aberdeen at 17.00 hours.

Hrossey will operate the southbound service from Lerwick on Saturday but with an unscheduled call at Kirkwall.

In order to accommodate the Kirkwall call – which does not normally form part of the Saturday southbound sailing – she is due to depart Lerwick two hours earlier than usual at 1700. She is due in at Kirkwall at 22.15 and scheduled to arrive in Aberdeen at 07.00 on Sunday morning.

NorthLink chief executive Bill Davidson said:

“The past week has been one of the most challenging that we have experienced in the eight years that we have been operating the service to the Northern Isles. The volcanic ash flight restrictions, allied to our having to operate with one of our vessels away in dry-dock and Hamnavoe’s unprecedented voyage to Bergen to bring home stranded travellers has meant that many of our customers have been inconvenienced and for that we apologise.

“Nevertheless, I want to place on record my thanks to NorthLink staff who have worked tirelessly to address the issues which were arising from an ever-changing situation and to keep the services in operation. Our booking centre staff for instance have processed about 8000 calls this week – some three times the volume we would expect at this time of year.

“I know that we’ve not been able to please all of the people all of the time and, in particular, we and the Scottish Government have come in for particular criticism from some sections of the Orkney community. I understand their frustration but throughout this challenging period, when hitherto unknown challenges called for hitherto untried responses, we have tried to operate a service which addressed the needs of those who were worst affected by the first universal no-fly ban in UK history,” he said.