STENA LINE announced the planned launches of 3 new cruiseferries in 2020. The newbuilds will be larger and faster than the current STENA ships deployed on crossings between Ireland and the UK.
Following the successful trials in China's Yellow Sea, Stena Estrid is heading back to the UK to start regularly scheduled crossings in 2020 between Dublin and Holyhead.
The second "Stena E-Flexer" class ship Stena Edda will be deployed on the Liverpool-Belfast route starting operations in 2020-Q2. The 3rd sistership Stena Embla starts operations on the same route in 2021-Q1.
A spokesperson for StenaLine revealed that the new ferries would be 215 meters in length, provide freight capacity of 3100 lanemeters (cargo capacity 120 cars) and 1,000 crew and passengers. Loading and offloading the vessels will also be quicker meaning that the time passengers are on board will be less.
A new lounge and facilities are one of the new features onboard the ships that will replace the current ferries on StenaLine's Irish Sea routes in 2-year time.