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Brittany Ferries Reopen Fast-Craft Seasonal UK-France Service

17th April 2014
Brittany Ferries Reopen Fast-Craft Seasonal UK-France Service

#BrittanyFerryCraft – Brittany Ferries reopen Portsmouth-Cherbourg seasonal services by Normandie Express, the fast-craft adding another alternative to their English Channel routes among them, as previously reported the new "économie" services to France and Spain, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The first sailing is this afternoon's 17.00hrs (local time) departure from Cherbourg to Portsmouth and which sees the InCAT built 98m Normandie Express craft that takes both cars and foot passengers at high-speed across in only three hours to the UK. She will operate the season with a single sailing daily in each direction up to 9 September.

The first day operating to a full sailing schedule with sailings in both directions will start with tomorrow's UK-France sailing at 09.00hrs and corresponding France-UK sailing departing at 17.00hrs.

The route provides options for passengers travelling from London and the south of England who want to get to France fast.

Arriving in Cherbourg likewise of its UK counterpart, the Normandy port has a long naval history and a large harbour plus marina to explore in addition to an old fishing port. For onward travel, Cherbourg located on the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula has access to the country's extensive motorway network.

 

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).