Brittany Ferries, a ferry service between the UK, France, Ireland and Spain, has announced a suspension of its services from Portsmouth and Plymouth in the UK, to France and Spain, due to a series of industrial actions.
The beleaguered company is currently only offering its Poole to Cherbourg passenger service, which is being operated by Condor Ferries. The strikes had been called by the France-based workers of the company, following certain cost cutting drives initiated by the company.
The company has released a statement saying, ‘Following the series of strikes which has been disrupting our services to and from France and Spain, our Board has reluctantly taken the decision to tie up the fleet and to cancel all crossings with immediate effect, until further notice. The only route which will be unaffected is the Poole-Cherbourg passenger service which is operated on our behalf by Condor Ferries.
This decision has not been taken lightly, but we cannot subject our passengers to the on-going uncertainty caused by wildcat strikes and cancellation of services at short notice.
We are systematically contacting our passengers by telephone, email, SMS and Twitter but this is placing enormous pressure on our contact centre so our speed of response may not be up to its usual standards.
Because of this indefinite stoppage we are recommending customers to travel to Dover where we currently have special arrangements in place with P&O Ferries and MyFerryLink to accept Brittany Ferries tickets (see below). Unused Brittany Ferries crossings will be refunded.’
For passengers with valid tickets for Brittany Ferries, the company has announced an arrangement with P&O Ferries, and MyFerryLink, to accept the tickets for travel between Calais and Dover. All passengers have to do is present their Brittany Ferries tickets at check-in to travel complimentary with P&O Ferries or MyFerryLink.
