signed, sealed, delivered Minor Christmas delivery delays expected despite British travel ban

Only a small number of packages will be delayed this Christmas despite major disruption due to the travel ban to and from Britain, An Post have said.

An Post have said despite the landbridge to Europe via the UK closing Sunday night on short notice, all packages that arrived to their sorting centres before or on their deadline day will be delivered before Christmas.

Anna McHugh, head of communications for An Post, said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland that Irish customers have been “fantastic” this year.

“We’re a whole lot better than a whole lot of other places in Europe and the world. Yes, the landbridge across the UK is an issue because there is so much less air freight capacity which means there’s more going over land into Europe. We’re very dependent on that.

“Last-minute shopping and gifts coming in are definitely affected but Irish customers have been fantastic and really did get organised early and really did pay attention to the deadlines we had,” Anna confirmed.

Ms McHugh has said it was lucky that Irish people were so organised this year due to the unforeseen ban on freight leaving English and Welsh ports heading for mainland Europe and vice versa.

“It’s not as if we had a premonition of what would happen [in the UK] but it was the fact we had such high volumes. Things are good. Everything that we had on time will be delivered. We’re in good shape. The focus is now on domestic posting for gifts and cards. Never was there a year when the personal letter and card was needed.”

Post offices will be open until Midday on Christmas Eve for those people looking to purchase last minute gifts or collect social welfare payments and will resume business fully on December 30.

“If people are still sending things abroad or if loved ones are still trying to send parcels, then those are going to be delayed. There are lines and lines of trucks waiting to board ferries in the UK. We’re not too bad at all compared to other countries,” Ms McHugh insisted.

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Online Editors