Displaying items by tag: Surge in demand

11th November 2021

Surge in Brittany Ferries' Bookings on Ireland-France Routes

In terms of breakdown by market, Brittany Ferries France-Ireland route soared 234%. Afloat adds the Breton based operator also reported on UK-France reservations up 40% while UK-Spain routes they rose by 35%. Last week Afloat reported on the operator's new Rosslare-Le Havre 'freight' route also due to surging demand given a post-Brexit Britain. Above Pont-Aven in Cork Harbour recently on the final sailing to Roscoff this year, however the cruiseferry resumes service in March 2022.

Brittany Ferries, which operates the Ireland-France route of Cork-Roscoff, has reported a surge in bookings for summer 2022.

Since the onset of the pandemic, as Echo Live reports, the ferry company has navigated what it calls two "disastrous" summer seasons, where they lost €220m in 2020 alone.

However, an increase in reservations for next year has brought renewed optimism.

In a statement released today the company said that by the end of last month, 188,878 passengers had booked trips for July to September 2022 - a 48% increase from the 2020 summer season.

Reservations on routes between Ireland and France are currently up 234% and reservations on the Rosslare and Bilbao, Spain route are up 80%.

“The storm clouds are beginning to lift and I welcome the boost in reservations for next year,” said company CEO Christophe Mathieu.

“We are so grateful to our loyal customers. The support of the French government combined with the loyalty of our Irish and British customers will allow us to continue the beautiful voyage of this company.”

Published in Brittany Ferries

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World's Top 12 Container Carriers: The Winners & Losers in 2020

Giant container operators, CMA CGM and HMM reacted quickest to the cargo surge in the second half of 2020 with the former primed to become the third largest global carrier later this year. Above: AFLOAT's file photo of a CMA CGM containership, Nicolas Delmas departing Dublin Port with assistance of tug's (one unseen off the bow).

Of the world’s top 12 container shipping carriers, 8 of them increased overall capacity in 2020 despite all 12 making stinging capacity cuts in the first half of the year as Covid-19 lockdowns hit demand.

As LloydsLoadingList reports, the carriers HMM and CMA CGM posted the largest size gains last year with both adding more than 300,000 (TEU) of capacity as carriers reacted to surging global demand for goods in the second half of the year.

CMA CGM added 64 ships while HMM increased its fleet size by 85% through a substantial newbuilding program which enabled the line to jump from 10th place up to 8th according to Alphaliner’s Top 12 carrier rankings of carriers by size.

MSC’s fleet capacity growth last year of 2.4% meanwhile saw it edge closer to Maersk (-2% in 2020) at the top of the rankings.

For further reading plus a chart of carrier fleet capacity gains and lossed during last year, click here.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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