Condor “regrets” disruption after passengers sleep in terminal

Monday 01 August 2022

Condor passengers reported having to sleep in Jersey’s ferry terminal over the weekend, after a cancellation stranded them on the island with few hotel beds to accommodate them.

Several Guernsey-bound passengers took to Facebook to air their frustrations after a sudden ferry cancellation left some people waiting “23 hours for an alternative ferry”.

Jenna de Carteret had travelled to Jersey for five nights for a holiday with her family and they were supposed to come back Saturday night. 

After arriving to the harbour early they were told that their trip on the Liberation had been cancelled.

"[We were told] that we had to join the reservations queue so they can rebook us on another sailing. Upon asking when they think that would be they told us it could be Wednesday if they have enough room," she told Express.

"My boyfriend asked if they would find us a hotel and we were told 'no', we have to find our own accommodation. So we joined the back of the reservations queue. People were asking us if we knew anything, we explained... what we had been told and there were many worried people not knowing what to do."

Pictured: Ms De Carteret had travelled to Jersey for a holiday with her boyfriend and three daughters.

Ms De Carteret calls herself one of the lucky ones, as her family were able to book into a hotel in St Helier. She said roughly 50 people weren't so lucky and ended up sleeping in the Jersey ferry terminal.

"It took us 35 minutes to walk to our hotel, [and] it wasn’t pleasant to walk my children through town on a Saturday night," she said. "We arrived at [our] hotel and, once we sorted our children out, we collapsed on the bed in our room."

Ms De Carteret and her family were able to book travel back to Guernsey on the Sunday crossing, but she said she won't rush to book another ferry trip.

"This experience has very much put us off booking with Condor anytime soon, think we will stick with Herm or Sark."

Pictured: The Condor Liberation was cancelled due to engine trouble.

Condor’s Operations Director, Elwyn Dop, said: “We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to passengers following the cancellation of our high speed sailing to the UK on Saturday from the Islands.

“Alternative arrangements were put in place to assist those disrupted over the weekend. A new return service was scheduled on Sunday using Commodore Clipper and Condor Voyager, our St Malo based ferry, is operating a Jersey-Guernsey-Poole trip today.”

Mr Dop said Condor’s port teams and customer contact centre worked tirelessly with passengers “although it was not possible to accommodate everyone in hotels due to the short notice in peak season”.

“The cancellation was caused by an engine problem with Condor Liberation which affected departures from Jersey and Guernsey to Poole on Saturday evening,” he said.

Condor’s engineers worked through the weekend on the Liberation and it is now running the Guernsey/Cherbourg schedule today.