BOSSES from CalMac say the £200m ferries fiasco at Ferguson's shipyard in Port Glasgow is causing knock-on 'major disruption' for island communities up and down the west coast of Scotland.

Dual fuel Arran ferry Glen Sannox and her as yet unnamed sister were supposed to have been ready long ago but the calamitous contract has doubled in price and work on the vessels won't be finished until at least 2022.

Meanwhile more than 1,000 CalMac sailings were cancelled in 2019 because of mechanical problems.

Duncan Mackison, chief executive officer of David MacBrayne Limited and Robbie Drummond, managing director of CalMac Ferries, are set to appear today before MSPs who are probing the affair.

In a joint statement, David MacBrayne Limited and CalMac Ferries said: “As we have no spare vessels, any technical breakdowns result in major disruption for communities.

"While significant funds have been invested in vessel resilience, it is inevitable that the risk of technical disruption will increase as the fleet continues to age.

“The two new vessels were due into service in 2018.

"They would have delivered much-needed additional capacity and improved resilience on the Ardrossan-Brodick and Uig-Tarbert/Lochmaddy routes, enabled a cascade of vessels to improve capacity on other routes including Oban-Craignure and Mallaig-Armadale, and reduced the average age of the fleet.

“This would have also released a spare vessel that could have been used, subject to available funding, as a relief vessel which would have helped provide resilience to communities when technical breakdowns occur.”