Summer holidaymakers boost Port of Dover’s figures to pre-pandemic levels

During the summer holidays, the Port of Dover processed over two million passengers, 483,000 cars, 9,000 coaches and 237,000 freight vehicles. This equates to 2,390 miles of outbound traffic processed during the six-week period, a distance that stretches from Dover, to beyond Cairo, Egypt.

Dover is the country’s shortest sea crossing to France and has 130 daily ferry crossings. Despite the large-scale return to pre-pandemic tourist volumes, the average processing time at the border was 41 minutes during the peak hours (6am-2pm) and 23 minutes overall.

Extensive planning conducted alongside operational partners had factored in up to 2.5 hours of waiting time before border controls in the Port at the very busiest times, but this was only ever reached during one single hour on Saturday 29th July, the busiest day at the Port since before the pandemic. On this day, over 800 cars arrived at the Port per hour during peak hours, with 42,415 outbound passengers, 10,220 cars, 195 coaches and 2,454 freight vehicles passing outbound through the Port in total.

Port Chief Executive Doug Bannister said:

“The Port community is immensely proud of the huge planning that was undertaken to ensure a smooth transit for our passengers this summer, in the wake of the return to pre-pandemic numbers and under today’s border process regime. Dover’s plan for summer, delivered in collaboration with a wide range of operational partners, ultimately paid off to deliver a fantastic summer season, which will provide confidence for the nation that Dover remains the premier trade and travel gateway.

“It’s evident that public trust in ferry travel remains high. The time you arrive in Dover ahead of your ferry is comparable to arriving at the airport before your flight. However, once you clear all border checks within Dover, you can subsequently enjoy the comfortable crossing to France and simply drive off the ferry and to your onward destination at your arrival port – as well as skipping baggage reclaim queues.

“Also, the flexibility we offer here is second to none. If you miss your flight, you may be able to get another one at an additional cost and probably at a much later time – perhaps flying another day. If you unfortunately miss your ferry sailing, you will be accommodated on the next available crossing (which is usually within an hour) at no extra cost.”

Among many other measures, operational planning included the sharing of projected traffic arrivals for every hour of every day to assist with resource planning and traffic management and ensuring Port of Dover police resource at junctions throughout the town to keep the traffic flowing well and the town clear. An additional two coach processing positions were also installed, giving a capacity of seven coach processing positions (a 130% increase); providing Police aux Frontières with a maximum processing capacity of nine tourist lanes, seven coach lanes and two freight lanes at peak times. They also shared live travel information with passengers hour-by-hour on peak days.

Doug Bannister added: “Periods of increased dwell time were experienced during the busiest of days, which included some congestion surrounding the Port, both of which will serve as key focus areas for future planning. I would like to thank the Dover and wider Kent community for their patience during the very busiest of times, and of course, thank our passengers for their continued support of our services. We are committed to continually improving our performance to reduce the impact on our community and deliver the excellent customer service that is appropriate to being Britain’s premier port.”

Karen Baurdoux, Channel Passenger Director at DFDS, said: “We are delighted to have welcomed repeat and new customers onboard our Dover-Dunkerque and Dover-Calais routes over the summer. Our colleagues ashore and onboard have worked incredibly hard to help our customers get away on their holidays.

New border controls to protect UK against security threats and ensure smooth flow of goods

The Border Target Operating Model –published on 29th August 2023 – sets out security and biosecurity controls including bringing in controls on imports from the EU for the first time and using Brexit freedoms to simplify import controls on goods from across the world.

We are grateful for the ongoing good collaboration with our partners in the ports and look forward to continuing to work together on the learnings we have had from the summer.”

Louisa Bell, Passenger Managing Director at P&O Ferries, said: “We are proud to have played an integral role in facilitating this summer’s record passenger numbers and freight volume as the largest operator on the Dover-Calais route. We look forward to continuing to serve our customers across this route for years to come –supported by our new hybrid fusion-class ships P&O Pioneer and P&O Liberte.”

Nora Costello, Consumer Sales & Marketing Director at Irish Ferries, said: “We are delighted so many passengers this summer have benefited from Irish Ferries’ great value fares and enjoyed excellent service, getting their trip to France off to a great start.”

The controls are designed to keep the UK safe by defending against plant and animal diseases from abroad, protecting the vital agricultural industry and food supply chains, and assuring trade partners of the quality of UK exports. It will also protect against illegal imports including firearms and drugs. The Border Target Operating Model is designed to make smarter use of data and technology to ensure a more efficient trading experience for businesses. The Government says it will save businesses around £520 million per year compared to the original import model that would have been introduced in 2022.

William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Businesses will be pleased with this clarity as they prepare for the challenging shift to a digital trade system. The focus must now be on delivering the Single Trade Window to the timescales set out. The new approach to digitalising borders for goods movements could bring real benefits to the SMEs we represent, to trade, and to the economy.

“The critical thing is preparedness. Businesses are making investment and supply chain decisions for the long term and need to be confident that the physical and digital infrastructure around the GB border is going to be in place on time.”