Data study · 29,000 ferry legs · Aug 2025 – Jun 2026
Do Andaman ferries get cancelled? We ran the numbers.
Every Andaman planning thread carries the same anxiety: "what if my ferry gets cancelled?" Nobody publishes data on it — so we pulled the booking records from bookyourferry.com, our own ferry-booking platform, and counted. The honest answer has two halves, and the surprising number belongs to December.
The two-sided answer
- Operators cancelling sailings: mostly a monsoon event — and when it happens, passengers are accommodated on a different ferry. You get moved, not stranded.
- Travellers cancelling their own bookings: ~3.5% of booked legs — about 1 in 28 — every one refunded.
- The December surprise: the most-booked month has the highest cancellation rate — 5.4%, more than double May's 2.1% — because plans made six months out are the plans that change.
Guest cancellations, month by month
Booked ferry legs whose travellers cancelled them (and were refunded), by travel month — August 2025 to June 2026, the window with complete records:
| Travel month | Booked legs | Cancelled by guest | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | 782 | 23 | 2.9% |
| Sep 2025 | 1,228 | 36 | 2.9% |
| Oct 2025 | 2,199 | 88 | 4.0% |
| Nov 2025 | 3,623 | 92 | 2.5% |
| Dec 2025 | 5,386 | 291 | 5.4% |
| Jan 2026 | 4,382 | 180 | 4.1% |
| Feb 2026 | 3,641 | 98 | 2.7% |
| Mar 2026 | 3,106 | 83 | 2.7% |
| Apr 2026 | 1,350 | 51 | 3.8% |
| May 2026 | 1,729 | 37 | 2.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 1,056 | 31 | 2.9% |
n = 28,482 legs, 1,010 guest cancellations in the window shown (plus a partial July on each end). Cancellation recording began August 2025, so earlier months cannot be compared. Updated annually.
Why December, of all months
Because December is the month people book furthest ahead. Early December bookings in this dataset were made around six months out — and a plan made in June for travel in December has six months of life to get in its way: leave that falls through, a group that shrinks, a wedding that moves. Near-term months show the opposite: May travel is booked days ahead by people who already know they are going, so roughly 1 in 47 cancels.
The practical reading is not "avoid December". It is: book December early — seats genuinely sell out — and read the cancellation terms before you pay, because one December booking in eighteen ends up cancelled by its own traveller. Our best-time guide has the season-by-season picture, surcharges included.
And when the operator cancels the ferry?
This is the fear behind the search, so here is the operational truth from our booking desk: operator cancellations cluster in the monsoon, and the standard outcome is that passengers are accommodated on a different sailing — the same day or the next morning. It is a moved trip, not a lost one. Our guests' own reviews tell it: a cancelled Havelock crossing became accommodation for the night, seats on the next day's boat, and the refund of the difference before the trip ended.
The one crossing you should never leave to luck is the last one. A cancelled ferry on your flight day is the only version of this that genuinely hurts — which is why every itinerary we build ends with a buffer night in Port Blair before the flight home, and why we plan around the five or six genuinely rough sea days a typical monsoon season brings.
Check the actual sailings, live
The worry this page answers is best settled by looking at the board itself — live seats and fares, straight from the booking platform this data comes from:
Today's ferries, live
Andaman ferry schedule · BookYourFerry.com — our founders' ferry-booking platform.
Methodology, honestly
Source: anonymized, aggregated booking records from bookyourferry.com — our own ferry-booking platform (same founders as Tropical Andamans; disclosed). 58,632 bookings covering 46,000+ individual ferry legs; the analysis window is August 2025 – June 2026 (~29,000 legs), the period with complete cancellation records. "Cancelled" counts traveller-initiated, refund-processed cancellations — it does not measure operator-cancelled sailings, which are handled by rebooking and described qualitatively above. No personal data was used in the aggregates. The pipeline runs annually; this page updates with each season.
The ferry-fear questions, answered straight
How often do Andaman ferries actually get cancelled by the operator?
Less often than the internet fears, and mostly in the monsoon (June–September), when rough sea days force schedule changes. The practical point: when an operator cancels a sailing, passengers are accommodated on a different ferry — the trip continues, usually the same day or the next morning. Across our weather guide's numbers, a typical May–August season has only five or six genuinely disruptive sea days. What protects you is sequencing: never plan a same-day ferry-to-flight connection.
What does the 3.5% cancellation figure measure?
Guest-side cancellations: booked ferry legs that the traveller themselves cancelled and had refunded — 1,010 of 28,482 legs (3.5%) booked on bookyourferry.com between August 2025 and June 2026. It is not a measure of ferries breaking down or operators cancelling sailings — those are handled by rebooking and tracked separately in operations.
Why is December the highest month for cancellations?
Because December is booked furthest in advance — early bookers hold tickets bought around six months out — and long-lead plans change: leave falls through, group sizes shift, weddings move. About one December booking in eighteen ends up cancelled by its own traveller. The takeaway isn't to avoid December; it's to book early (seats genuinely sell out) while knowing the cancellation and refund terms before you pay.
Do I get my money back if I cancel a ferry booking?
On bookyourferry.com, yes — every cancelled leg in this dataset has a matching processed refund, subject to the operator's fare rules and timing. Cancellation terms vary by ferry operator and how close to sailing you cancel, so read the fare conditions at booking. If we planned your trip, we handle the cancellation and refund for you.
What happens to my trip if the operator cancels my ferry?
You get moved, not stranded. Operator cancellations — mostly monsoon-season — end with passengers accommodated on another sailing, and our own guests' reviews tell that story: cancelled crossings rebooked for the next morning with accommodation arranged in between. The one situation to design out is a cancelled crossing on your flight day, which is why every itinerary we build ends with a buffer night in Port Blair.
Plan around the sea, not against it
- Day-by-day itineraries — with the buffer rules built in.
- How to reach Andaman — flights, the airport, the ship option.
- Weather by month — the sea-state truth behind this data.
- Best time to visit — verdicts and prices, season by season.
How this page stays true
Every figure on this page is machine-generated from the booking records — no rounding stories, no hand-tuning — and the analysis window is stated so the numbers can be checked against next year's update. Published July 2026; refreshed annually after each season. If you use this data, credit bookyourferry.com and link this page.
Ferries, planned by the people who book them daily.
Tell us your dates — we sequence the crossings, hold the buffers, and handle the rebooking if the sea has other plans.