Ferries operating from Calais to Dover, the busy France-UK short-sea link, have been disrupted due to strike action taking place at the northern French port.

All three ferry companies serving on the Strait of Dover route, DFDS, Irish Ferries, and P&O Ferries have cancelled, delayed, or rerouted sailings because of a dispute over pension reforms.

Two of the three companies, P&O Ferries and Irish Ferries, confirmed before lunchtime that their check-in services had reopened. However, both cited continuing strikes that could still cause further disruption.

Whereas DFDS has yet to confirm if customers can check-in for its ferries at Calais. The Danish operator’s most recent update advised passengers to catch their ferries from neighbouring port of Dunkirk, located to the east. They operate three-ferries on the Dunkirk-Dover route.

Across the Strait at the Port of Dover, where the port authority said it remains open but some services could be delayed due to strikes. The UK’s busiest ferry port said it understood the industrial action would last until midnight on Saturday, 8 June.

More from BBC News on the disruption to ferry operators.

A veteran ferry of P&O is set to make a final voyage to Turkey to be recycled at the beach in Aliaga after operating for three decades on the Dover-Calais shuttle route.

The sale of the 1993 built Pride of Burgundy, which P&O returned to the route in 2021 took place only a week after new UK-France rival Irish Ferries launched a service, marks a return to buying action by Turkish ship recyclers who have been quiet since a devastating earthquake hit the country a month ago which involved assistance of a former Irish Sea ferry.

It is reported by brokers that ferry from the German shipyard of Schichau Seebeckwerft, has been sold to an EU-approved recycling facility for $320 per ldt. The sale from the UK based ferry subsidiary with routes also on the Irish Sea, will see Dubai’s DP World netting $3.7m.

Pride of Burgundy was originally to be a freight orientated ferry, however the design during construction was completed to include accommodation for 1,420 passengers, 465 car and 120 lorries. Its largely uneventful career shuttling passengers and cars across the English Channel came to an end in May 2020 when the ferry was placed in lay-up after demand dropped due to Covid-19, but the ship briefly returned to active service later that year, but in a freight-only capacity.

As alluded above, AFLOAT adds ‘Burgundy’ returned for further freight-mode service yet again in 2021 as part of joint P&O/DFDS space chater agreement. More recently, it has been laid up in the River Fal, Cornwall and now the ferry’s current location Afloat tracked to Dunkirk East on Saturday, where in neighbouring Calais, Irish Ferries Isle of Innisfree sailing the previous day from Dover, had an engire room fire that led to a tug required. Upon arrival at the French port, passengers safely disembarked.

As Tradewinds also reports, P&O Ferries has just introduced into service newbuild P&O Pioneer (however, Afloat notes bookings will not be available for travel until 1st May) on the ship that was completed by Guangzhou Shipyard International.

This is the first of two double-ended ‘Fusion’ class ferries for the Dover-Calais run. The 47,394-gt battery hybrid ropaxes, the company claims are to be “the most sustainable ships ever to sail on the English Channel”.

The second of the class, P&O Liberte, is expected to enter service in the fourth quarter. At that stage, ferry industry observers believe P&O Ferries will sell another of its ropax vessels of a similar age to the Pride of Burgundy.

An Irish Ferries ship operating on the Strait of Dover was forced to stop to rescue more than a dozen migrants in a sinking dinghy and return them to France, reports The Telegraph.

Crew on the Isle of Inishmore threw a rope to the 13 migrants to help pull their craft to the side of the ship, before rescuing them and returning them to Calais.

The ferry captain announced to the passengers: “Apologies for the delay, but we had to stop and rescue 13 migrants in distress, whose boat had run out of fuel and was sinking.”

It is thought to be the first time there has been such a rescue and came as a migrant in his 30s died when a boat packed with 40 people sank off the French coast near Dunkirk. A second migrant was reported missing.

Sebastien Pive, Dunkirk’s public prosecutor, announced a manslaughter inquiry, saying the boat had been so overloaded it broke down and sank.

It is the second channel tragedy in just over a week, after three Somali migrants were lost at sea from a dinghy that was finally picked up 30 miles off Harwich, in Essex. Two other Somalis were rescued from the boat.

For more on the record number of migrants reaching the UK, click here.

Irish Ferries' move into the competitive Dover-Calais route is where the operator now has tickets on sale, reports KentOnline, in addition pictures released to give a first glimpse as to what to expect.

The new service launches next Tuesday, June 29.

As Afloat reported, the Dublin-based firm announced in March it was to go head-to-head with the likes of existing ferry firms DFDS and P&O on the short cross-Channel route.

The firm will be operating the refurbished Isle of Inishmore ferry on the route - a vessel which had previously been used between Wales and Ireland.

Prices will start at £69 for a car and up to nine passengers - which is similar in price to the other ferries operating the route.

For further reading and pictorial of interior passenger facilities click here. 

Only last month, Afloat also highlighted that rival operators, P&O and DFDS joined forces in developing reduced freight waiting times in advance of Irish Ferries debut.  

In addition the announcement by ICG, parent company of Irish Ferries, to launch the service, has led to unions on either side of the Strait of Dover to claim that the new competitor is aggressively low-cost and this will seriously damage existing services.