Hullo Ferries surpasses 1.5 million passengers on third anniversary | Daily Hive

Hullo Ferries, as seen on Aug. 15, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Hullo Ferries is marking its third anniversary this week, celebrating three years since launching its high-speed, passenger-only service between downtown Vancouver and Nanaimo.

Since its inaugural sailing on Aug. 16, 2023, the private ferry company shared that it has cumulatively carried more than 1.5 million passengers across nearly 10,000 sailings.

The milestone comes after Hullo Ferries faced considerable skepticism before and shortly after its launch, with some doubting the new passenger-only service would even survive its first winter — based on the local history of previous failed attempts of other high-speed ferry services between the 1970s and 2000s.

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The company cumulatively recorded 400,000 passengers by the time of its first anniversary in August 2024, over 650,000 by February 2025, and 1.3 million by April 2026.

Hullo Ferries’ year-round daily service makes multiple roundtrips per day between the Coal Harbour waterfront in Downtown Vancouver and the Port of Nanaimo facility just south of Downtown Nanaimo. Currently, during the peak season, it runs three roundtrips per day on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and five or six sailings per day on Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends. An end-to-end trip on the service is roughly 75 minutes.

Hullo Ferries, as seen on Aug. 15, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

In June 2026, Hullo Ferries introduced new standardized schedules to make trip planning more predictable. It also implemented its first-ever fare increases, revised its onboard class structure and offerings, and launched a new economy-priced fare category called Comfort-Connect, with a limited number of one-way tickets available for $19.99 on select weekday departures.

To mark the third anniversary, Hullo Ferries is offering 20 per cent off Comfort-Flex and Premium bookings for groups of three or more passengers using the promotional code BIRTHDAY3. This offer must be booked by Sept. 30, 2026, for sailings through Nov. 30, 2026.

Hullo Ferries also has plans to eventually launch a second route between Downtown Vancouver and the Greater Victoria area. This would involve expanding its fleet beyond two ships to not only introduce the Victoria service, but to further bolster the Nanaimo service and create fleet redundancy and resiliency. Company leadership previously told Daily Hive Urbanized they are currently fine-tuning and optimizing their Nanaimo service, before aggressively turning to Victoria.

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