The hugely popular day-trip run by Stena Line and Ulsterbus ferried up to 10,000 shoppers a year to Ikea branches in Britain at its peak.

Stena Line started the trips to various outlets of the Swedish furnishing phenomenon, starting with the Metro Centre in Gateshead, then Edinburgh and Glasgow. The ferry operator was the only company to offer a through-coach service which enabled customers to buy at Ikea and transport their purchases back to the province via a coach to the car park and their own vehicles.

Ian Baillie, Stena Line marketing manager, said the loss of the route would not damage the company's core business.

"As we have transported around 1.5 million customers this year on our Northern Corridor routes, the amount of decreased custom will be relatively insignificant to our business," he said.

"We have a huge range of day-trip and short break products and are continually working to bring more on line - not only bringing people across from Northern Ireland to Scotland but also bringing Scottish travellers over here."