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Brittany Ferries Launch New Sailing Schedule for France & Spain

18th April 2026
Holidaymakers with Brittany Ferries can now plan French and Spanish holidays with the launch of new sailing schedules for this winter and extending to autumn 2027. Above, the cruise ferry Salamanca operates on Irish routes and is seen at Bilbao.
Holidaymakers with Brittany Ferries can now plan French and Spanish holidays with the launch of new sailing schedules for this winter and extending to autumn 2027. Above, the cruise ferry Salamanca operates on Irish routes and is seen at Bilbao. Credit: Brittany Ferries

Brittany Ferries, which operates to France and Spain, launched its latest sailing timetables from Ireland and the UK to the continent for travel up until November 2027.

Now travellers can make plans for French and Spanish holidays and breaks this winter, into next year, spring, and summer, extending right up to the autumn season.

The newly published timetable by Brittany Ferries covers 12 months of services from 2nd November 2026 to 7th November 2027. The company, in the peak season, offers 130 weekly sailings linking 12 ports in Ireland and the UK and linking France and Spain, which gives more choice than any other ferry operator, including those on the English Channel.

ITTN highlights the newly published schedule from Ireland.

Ireland to France: Holidaymakers heading to France from Ireland in 2027 can choose from four weekly sailings year-round on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route. The Wexford port is a 2-hour, 45-minute drive from Dublin; in addition, the company runs a seasonal route, Cork to Roscoff, with two weekly sailings (Wednesday and Saturday) from the Irish port, from March to November.

Ireland to Spain. On the route to the Iberian Peninsula, Brittany Ferries launched the first-ever Ireland to Spain ferry service from Cork in 2018; however, since then, the route has changed from Rosslare to Bilbao, and in 2027, the company will offer two weekly return sailings operated by one of its latest LNG-powered cruise ferries, Salamanca.

More information here on the company's routes from the UK to France and Spain.

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

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).