With the holiday seasons in place, demands for space in vessels travelling to the provinces is on the high.

Passengers awaiting their trips to the provinces have complained that with the busy period, there is "lack of proper service".

Lian Sian of Malaita Province said that limited number of operating vessels has caused a huge problem to traveling passengers.

"We are all fighting for space to travel to our respective islands, and it is not helping the situation when only a few boats are working," she said.

It was noted that a lot of vessels are "under repair, which should have been done way ahead of time for this busy period in time".

Solomon Times was also informed on a notable rise in fares as the number of passengers increases.

"But this hasn't stopped people from making their reservations, we are all actually fighting for space to travel out," Ms. Siu said, adding that this has caused a huge "boat overload at all times for all provinces".

A crew man for MV Harosi, Roy Tiri, agreed that the case of "overloaded ships is becoming an issue which has caused authorities to intervene".

"We get complaints from passengers when authorities halt trips out due to overloading but this is for their safety traveling out in open seas," he said.

Mr. Tiri said that while he understands the need to be in respective home islands for the festive seasons, "there's always the next trip out so we see no reason to why passengers have to be impatient and insist on overload".