'A beautiful venture': How Brittany Ferries continues to climb 'the insurmountable mountain' caused by Covid
BRITTANY Ferries is on track for its third consecutive year of growth after posting a positive rise in passenger numbers on its Portsmouth sailings to Normandy over the summer season.
From June to September more than 1.2m people took to the sea on its so-called 12 routes of the ‘Atlantic Arc’ including those heading to and from the city to Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg. The summer figure, which also covers services from Plymouth, Poole and Ireland, was a three per cent increase on 2024.
It puts Brittany Ferries on track to see annual growth when its year-end figures are published next spring - representing a significant milestone following the dark days of the shutdown imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We continue to scale what seemed to be an insurmountable mountain when the Covid crisis struck,” said Christopher Mathieu CEO Brittany Ferries. “These latest figures are proof that we are getting stronger every year and I am delighted that we continue to grow. Our path to the future looks brighter than it has done for many years.”
He added: “This only comes thanks to careful management of our fleet. That includes adding new ships and our ability to move swiftly when opportunity knocks. I must also thank all those who work within our company, on board and on shore for their hard work and dedication.
“Finally, we must never forget the unwavering support, commitment and confidence of our farmer-shareholders with whom we stand shoulder to shoulder in continuing this beautiful venture.”
Highlights for passengers this year included the addition of a new hybrid ship Guillaume de Normandie - powered by a combination of cleaner LNG and electricity - on the ‘workhorse’ Portsmouth-Caen route. In total, 25,000 more passengers travelled to and from Normandy from Britain and Ireland than the previous summer. This represents a 4.5 per cent rise from around 580,000 to 605,000.
On the Brittany routes, Guillaume’s sister ship Saint-Malo joined the fleet in February, completing the largest fleet renewal programme in the company’s history. Passenger numbers from Portsmouth were around the same year-on-year of just short of 400,000 but the new design of St Malo meant that freight traffic increased.
Passenger numbers to Spain, from Portsmouth and Plymouth, rose by three per cent to around 160,000.