46 | FLEET MARITIME
FLEET MARITIME
Vol 18, No. 2 – SUMMER 2022
Shipping & Freight Newsletter – Compiled by Howard Knott – howard@fleet.ie
P & O Ferries sackings lead to significant ferry traffic disruption
Pride of Bruges The sacking on 17 March of 800 sea-going personnel by DP World owned ferry service operator, P & O Ferries led to the immediate tying up of most of the company’s fleet and significant disruption of freight and passenger traffic. At the time of that announcement the company declared that recruitment of replacement Agency crews was well underway and that it expected to be able to resume full operation within a matter of days. While services operated by vessels chartered in by P & O and crewed by the vessels’ owner’s personnel did resume within days, as did services using P & O vessels crewed under previously negotiated Dutch contracts, the vast majority of the company’s fleet remains tied up over a month later. Currently the Larne/Cairnryan service is operating with a single vessel while Stena Line has added a third vessel to its Belfast/Cairnryan service to ease the
pressure on the Irish Sea Northern Corridor. This has meant that Stena has not been able to provide annual maintenance dry-dock cover for the Stena Horizon on its Rosslare/Cherbourg service. Irish Ferries has been taking some of the pressure arising for freight traffic routing through Cherbourg by sailing Epsilon from Dublin on Friday evening over the Easter period. This has reduced available capacity on the Dublin/Holyhead route, though this has been partially offset by the re-introduction of the Dublin Swift fast ferry on the route. P & O Ferries Dublin/Liverpool route is now reduced from four vessels to a two-vessel operation while the Dover/ Calais service has been reduced to a severely limited freight service without car and passenger facilities. Irish Ferries has brought forward the introduction of its third vessel, the Isle of Inisturk, onto that corridor, bringing its offering up to over fifteen sailing a day in each direction. Just how critical the P & O Dover services are to the facilitation of British/French traffic is indicated by the traffic queues of up to twenty miles seeking to cross the Dover Straits.
The routes served by P & O North Sea services have been less affected by the crew dismissals and tying up of vessels with other carriers being able to take up much of traffic and some P & O services using chartered vessels.
Dover truck queues return to pre-Brexit lengths following withdrawal of P & O services It is now expected that there will be a gradual return of services operating under new crewing arrangements. The main factor here is the speed at which the regulatory authorities involved with the routes give clearance to the vessels to return to them.
Brittany Ferries confirms commitment to the development of Irish services At a reception aboard the Cruise Ferry Armorique following her arrival at Ringaskiddy on 6 April, Brittany Ferries’ President, Jean-Marc Roue, signed a three-year deal with the Port of Cork committing the Line to the operation of twice-weekly seasonal sailings from Roscoff to Cork. While the principal focus of this route remains on passenger and car traffic, the addition of a second sailing using a vessel with significant trailer capacity does open significant opportunities for Atlantic Arc freight traffic development. FLEETTRANSPORT | MAY - JUNE 22
On the following day, Jean-Mark Roue, visited Rosslare where he made the announcement to replace current vessel Connemara on the Rosslare/Bilbao and Rosslare/Cherbourg routes by the Company’s first E-Flexer cruise ferry, Galicia, in November 2022. Speaking about the new vessel, which has capacity for 1015 passengers and 40% more freight capacity then the vessel being replaced, Jean-Marc Roue said: “There is no doubt that the Rosslare – Bilbao route has been successful, and we are pleased with the way Irish hauliers
have embraced it. Galicia will continue to provide a strong freight offering. However, our research has indicated that there is a demand there from Irish people wishing to holiday in Spain and Galicia will certainly make for a far more enjoyable experience for them. The job now is to work in partnership with tourism bodies in Ireland and Spain to ensure that holidaymakers fill our ships and enrich destinations in both markets.”
