About Red Funnel
Red Funnel Group
Formed in 1861 Red Funnel is the ‘Original Isle of Wight ferry operator’, connecting Southampton and the Island for over 164 years. Today, we carry 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles across the Solent each year. The Company operates 365 days a year, with 30,000 sailings between Southampton on the UK mainland and East and West Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Our fleet consists of modern purpose-built Ro-Pax vehicle ferries and Red Jet Hi-Speed passenger catamarans. Catering and retail services are provided in-house.
Red Funnel Holidays
Red Funnel Holidays offer a wide range of year-round ferry inclusive holidays and short breaks on the Isle of Wight, with options to purchase attraction tickets, event and festival tickets, through rail, and National Express coach tickets.
The Red Funnel Group is wholly owned by Njord Partners, which acquired the company in 2025.
Red Funnel Annual Review 2025
Find out more about our lifeline service, community engagement initiatives and First-Class Service delivery in our Annual Review.
Performance
Red Funnel operates approximately 13,500 Red Jet Hi-Speed sailings and 13,000 passenger vehicle ferry and freight sailings each year. The Company is committed to delivering a safe, reliable, punctual, and affordable service that’s rated highly for customer satisfaction. We endeavour to operate the published timetable regardless of load factor but unfortunately some cancellations are inevitable due to weather and unforeseen technical issues. All technical cancellations are investigated and a continuous improvement process is in place.
Reliability / punctuality based on advertised timetable:
| February | VEHICLE FERRY | HI-SPEED FERRY |
| Reliability | 97.45% | 95.64% |
| Punctuality | 92.04% | 95.99% |
| March | VEHICLE FERRY | HI-SPEED FERRY |
| Reliability | 93.38% | 99.17% |
| Punctuality | 89.72% | 93.39% |
| April | VEHICLE FERRY | HI-SPEED FERRY |
| Reliability | 90.46% | 98.23% |
| Punctuality | 88.73% | 98.23% |
Reliability based on cancellations made with 4 days (or more) notice:
| Route | 01/04/26 - 28/04/26 | Year to date (2026) |
| VEHICLE FERRY | 96.15% | 97.70% |
| HI-SPEED FERRY | 98.23% | 97.85% |
Awards
Official Social Media Accounts
Facebook - @RedFunnelIsleofWightFerry
X - @RedFunnelFerry
Instagram - @RedFunnelFerry
YouTube - @RedFunnelFerries
TikTok - @RedFunnelFerry
Linkedin - @RedFunnelGroup