Traffic on P&O's Irish Sea routes bucked the overall trend in its ferries business and increased during the second quarter of the year, the company said yesterday.

The publicly quoted shipping line released a trading update showing that overall passenger numbers across the group slipped to 3.6 million in the three months to the end of June from 4.1 million during the same period in 2002.

Vehicle numbers dropped from 693,000 to 681,000 year-on-year. Freight traffic held steady, coming in at 522,000 units compared with 518,000, but the group said it had a 5 per cent increase in its Irish Sea business.

However, P&O said there was a 15 per cent increase in tourist vehicles and a 4 per cent increase in passengers on its Irish Sea routes.

P&O only gave separate figures for its Dover-Calais operation, where numbers dropped from three million to 2.7 million. The Irish Sea ferry business with the North Sea was listed under "other routes". This showed a drop from one million passengers in 2002 to 976,000. Vehicle numbers fell from 262,000 to 248,000.

While volumes increased slightly in its Ferrymasters logistics business, P&O said total Irish volumes fell by 3 per cent.

Last May, Stena agreed to acquire P&O's Dublin-UK business and associated port facilities in a £50 million sterling (€71 million) deal. A spokeswoman yesterday said the transferring of assets was still in the early stages.