Port freight
Cairnryan · January to March 2026
Cairnryan moved 563,504 tonnes of freight in January to March 2026 — the joint 29th-busiest of the 53 UK major ports that quarter, on provisional figures.
Read from the Department for Transport’s PORT0502 table, in the vintage we archived on 11 August 2026.
563,504
tonnes
Freight through Cairnryan, both directions, January to March 2026
Provisional — the publisher will revise this quarter
That is 0.5% of all freight through UK major ports in January to March 2026.
Its busiest quarter on our record was October to December 2024, at 1.1m tonnes — 50% above where it is now. The record starts in January to March 2009.
The busiest UK major ports in January to March 2026
- … 18 ports between
- out of 53 UK major ports reporting that quarter
Tonnage in both directions, as published. “Major port” is the publisher’s own unit, and some of them are more than one place: Grimsby and Immingham are counted together, as are Tees and Hartlepool.
Every quarter on record
One cell per quarter from 2009 Q1 to 2026 Q1, shaded from this port’s own quietest quarter to its busiest. Quarters the publisher marked as not applicable are left blank rather than read as zero.
The last three years, quarter by quarter
| Quarter | Tonnage | Rank among ports |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | 563,504 tonnes | 29th |
| 2025 Q4 | 579,310 tonnes | 29th |
| 2025 Q3 | 581,291 tonnes | 30th |
| 2025 Q2 | 1.0m tonnes | 19th |
| 2025 Q1 | 1.0m tonnes | 20th |
| 2024 Q4 | 1.1m tonnes | 20th |
| 2024 Q3 | 1.0m tonnes | 22nd |
| 2024 Q2 | 944,901 tonnes | 25th |
| 2024 Q1 | 1.1m tonnes | 22nd |
| 2023 Q4 | 1.0m tonnes | 24th |
| 2023 Q3 | 997,000 tonnes | 23rd |
| 2023 Q2 | 848,459 tonnes | 25th |
How these figures are read
Figures are tonnage in both directions, in thousand tonnes as published and shown here in tonnes. The publisher’s own four-quarter totals and percentage-change columns are not used: every comparison on this page is calculated from the quarters themselves.
The publisher marks this quarter provisional. Provisional quarters are revised, and when they are, the change is logged in our corrections log.