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#IrelandSpainFerry –Tonight, LD Lines finally resume their Ireland-Spain route via western France served by ro-pax Norman Atlantic, writes Jehan Ashmore

As previously reported, LD Lines announcement of the route returning to service follows an absence of more than three months due initially to dry-docking and for other un-disclosed reasons.

In January the French operator started the first ferry connection between Ireland and Spain with a stopover en route call at St.Nazaire before completing the journey to Gijón in the northern region of Asturias.

The once weekly 22-hour service calls to Rosslare on Thursdays and departs from the Wexford port on Fridays.

Since her arrival to Rosslare Eurport last evening, the ro-pax Norman Atlantic has remained in port for almost a full day, as she departs this evening at 9pm.

She is scheduled to arrive tomorrow at St. Nazaire on at 1900. From the mid-west Atlantic French port she heads for Gijón with an arrival time on Sundays at 1300.

Northbound the vessel departs Gijón on Tuesdays at 2200 and St. Nazaire at 2359 on Wednesdays before arriving back in Rosslare at 21.45 on Thursdays.

The 550-passenger Norman Atlantic caters for tourist traffic and can accommodate both regular freight types and most abnormal loads benefitting hauliers.

Her sister Norman Astuarias operates additional sailings yet only on the French-Spanish link.

Published in Ferry

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).

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