Brittany Ferries won’t be riding to Condor’s rescue

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Talks to charter a Brittany Ferries vessel to support Condor through the hectic Easter period have broken down – despite politicians in Jersey and Guernsey having talked up the deal over the weekend.

Brittany Ferries say that no deal will be done to lease the Normandie Express to Condor after brief discussions last week. And they say that no politicians have been involved in the talks at all.

Condor also confirmed last night that it wouldn’t be possible to jump through all of the regulatory hoops and find a qualified crew for the Normandie Express in time for Easter – but they say that they are still looking into practical alternative charter options.

They say that the £50 million Liberation vessel is back in service after being briefly detained by UK coastguard authorities in Poole last week over problems with fire doors, engines and steering among a list of 11 faults, and that the Rapide has now been refloated.

In a statement, they said that they were “aware that public confidence is at a very low point”.

They said: “We know how important the Easter getaway will be for all our customers and are totally focussed on improving the operational services at the same time as delivering improvements to our customer services - as both are vital to rebuilding confidence in our company.”