UPDATED: Hovertravel have suspended their cross-Solent service for the second time today (Saturday) due to yet another technical issue with Island Flyer.
The cross-Solent operation failed to begin this morning with the service completely suspended at 07:40 ahead of the scheduled 07:45 crossing. The first hover eventually left Ryde at 16:45 this afternoon following a 9 hour suspension of service.
However, just 90 minutes have passed and the Ryde to Southsea service has been brought to a halt once again.
Hovertravel have not explained what has caused either of today’s groundings, other than blaming ‘technical issues’.
It’s been a turbulent 24 hours for the operator as adverse weather brought about a stop to the service at just before 17:00 yesterday afternoon. This means no crossings were operated for an entire 24 hour period.
The next update will be at 19:15.
UPDATE @ 19:16 – Engineers are still working on the craft and therefore the service remains suspended.
The next update will be at 20:15.
The last scheduled crossing is the 21:00 from Southsea.
UPDATE @ 20:19 – Hovertravel have confirmed that services remain suspended and there will be no further crossings tonight.
The next update will be provided at 08:15 tomorrow morning (Sunday) ahead of the first scheduled crossing of the day at 08:45 from Ryde.
UPDATE SUNDAY @ 08:28 – After a day of significant disruption yesterday, Hovertravel say their services are back to normal with a ‘green’ status.
