Condor: We’ll update today about Liberation repairs

Tuesday 31 March 2015

Condor say that they will be able to update travellers later today about when their new £50 million fast ferry Liberation will be back in action after Saturday’s accident.

The ferry was forced to go back to the UK for repairs after hitting the docks in Guernsey on its second day in service, causing minor damage to its protective belting.

Today’s sailing had already been cancelled because of bad weather, but Condor expect to be able to say later today how soon the vessel will be back in action after repair work is completed.

In the meantime, they have put in place contingency plans including a charter ship to handle freight links to make sure that all passengers who had booked on Liberation can get on to the Commodore Clipper.

Captain Fran Collins, Executive Director – Operations, has apologised for the situation to passengers.

She said: “In the past, when weather has forced the cancellation of our high speed ferries, we have used Commodore Clipper in a combined freight and passenger role. However, because we are very aware of the particular importance of maintaining freight and passenger services to the Islands in the run up to Easter, we have put in place enhanced contingency arrangements, bringing in charter ship MV Arrow to support freight services, thereby allowing Clipper to focus on supporting passenger services.

“We would like to apologise to all those customers affected by the weather disruption and the incident which affected Condor Liberation. We are carrying out a full investigation in conjunction with Guernsey Harbours and we know there are always lessons to be learned in situations like these.”