The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has scheduled two additional sailings this weekend to meet increased demand.

It’s after weather-enforced cancellations on Wednesday which affected several sailings.

A planned Maintenance Night has been postponed and instead the Company’s flagship vessel Ben-my-Chree will sail from Douglas to Heysham at 7:45pm tomorrow (Saturday), returning at 2:15am on Sunday morning.

It is hoped the sailings will cater for the increased freight and passenger demand.

Steam Packet Company Managing Director Brian Thomson said: ’Following the cancellations earlier this week, we have decided to lay on two extra sailings at the Ben-my-Chree’s normal scheduled times and hope this will assist both passengers and freight customers at what is traditionally a busy time of year at the end of the autumn half-term.

’Along with our Liverpool sailings this weekend, this again underlines the importance of having resilience in the fleet to meet the unique demands of the Isle of Man’s sea services.’

He added: ’Maintenance downtime is planned into our schedule at the start of each year to ensure work can be undertaken regularly throughout the season without disrupting passengers’ travel plans.

’The maintenance period for Ben-my-Chree that we had initially factored in this weekend will be rearranged in due course.’