it’s redeploying the island’s new ferry to a different route, amid widespread disruption across the West coast network. The MV Isle of Islay only started serving the island’s route last week, but today it will be redeployed to Barra to restore a normal service there. The ferry operator says the MV Alfred will move to cover Islay as a second vessel alongside the MV Finlaggan from tomorrow afternoon.

The above is in Reporting Scotland’s wee half-hourly inserts in BBC Breakfast (6-9am) this morning but not, so far, in full on their website, so I cannot see who all these ‘resident’s are who are ‘frustrated’ even though the still have the MV Finlaggan and will have a second boat, the MV Alfred, from tomorrow afternoon. Remember, we’re still off season so the car decks will be half empty every sailing.

See that ‘from tomorrow afternoon?’ What if folk need to get off or onto Islay in the morning? What BBC Scotland don’t tell you

Today? No disruption as they have two ferries operating normally.

So, tell again what are the ‘residents’ frustrated by?

A different second ferry and not the new one named after their island but the same service?

Finally, who are ‘the residents?’

Just this guy? In the Scotsman 5 days ago:

Island at ‘crisis point’ amid Calmac ferry dis­rup­tion

A lead­ing busi­ness own­er­ in the Inner Hebrides has warned the island is reach­ing “crisis point” as a res­ult of the wide­spread prob­lems ­fa­cing c­almac, which is con­tinu­ing to bring its fer­ries back to ser­vice after what it described as a “firestorm.”

Alex Howard, who runs a hol­i­day cot­tage busi­ness on Colon­say, said house­holds on the island had been act­ing like “prep­pers” in order to ensure they do not run out of food, and described the cur­rent situ­ation as the “per­fect storm”.

Mr Howard­said­hisown­busi­ness was facing up to its worst Easter period in more than three dec­ades, with half of his cot­tagesempty­be­causeth­e­ferry oper­ator’s book­ing ser­vice is being tem­por­ar­ily closed for nearly two weeks over April.

No other resident is mentioned in quite a long Scotsman report.

Have any other Islay ‘residents’ complained about their ferry service?

The Herald’s Martin Williams 24 May 2025, had the latest in his Fiasco Journalism Series:

A new “fiasco” caused by a ferry breakdown has sparked a row over the delivery of vital supplies on an island on the eve of its world famous whisky festival. The key ferry for Islay, MV Finlaggan has been sidelined as problems have emerged during routine planned maintenance of main engines during an annual overhaul period.

Under a picture of the MV Finlaggan, it’s described as ‘stricken!’ You have to fn laugh at that. It’s just in for maintenance and is being delayed for a week or so. Local haulier B Mundell (sic) is responsible for supplying the festival.

The above March 2025 survey tells a different story of the mass of islanders and tourists. This is based on 523 passenger evaluations for the ‘Kintyre’ area including Islay-Kennacraig, Tarbert LF-Portavadie and Tayinloan-Gigha, with the first carrying by far the most passengers (12k compared to 2k and 4k).

Who is really to blame – Haulier B Mundell and or the festival organisers who did not get their act together earlier to make sure of a place for their lorry and the festival necessities, early enough? It’s every year. How hard is that?

How full is the Islay ferry vehicle deck on average? 84.6%.

Source:

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.calmac.co.uk/media/oaafw0if/kintyre.pdf

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Who told BBC Scotland that ‘residents were frustrated?’ The first guy?