With two-and-a-half months to go until its official launch in island waters, Jersey’s new key ferry operator has been busy recruiting local staff, with around 20 to 30 open positions available.
During an update on Thursday when the ‘work in progress’ sailing schedule was released, DFDS’s Jersey route director Chris Parker told Express that two job fairs held so far had attracted about 70 to 80 islanders in total.
“There’s a lot of interest in potential roles with DFDS on the island,” he said.
“We think we’ll have about 20 or 30 roles which will be available. We’re certainly hoping that a lot of those roles will be filled by existing Condor employees.”
Pictured: Jersey route director Chris Parker (Megan Davies)
Positions entail operational staff in the port as well as management, working on partnerships with island businesses, for example on joint campaigns promoting Jersey.
The company is focusing on Jersey staff as opposed to French or UK Condor employees for the moment, he added.
He added: “We’ve had some discussions with Condor about making sure that there’s this continuity there. They want to look after their staff, we want to take them on.
“We don’t want to lose them from the ferry industry – we want to keep them doing what they do very, very well. So to see so many of them yesterday and today is fantastic.”
DFDS is currently working on a transition period between the end of Condor services and the start of DFDS services, he added.
Released on Thursday, the latest DFDS schedule showed it will be serving the island with two high-speed craft, a conventional passenger vessel and a dedicated freight vessel.
Sailings to Portsmouth will start from 28 March 2025, whilst those to Poole are set to commence from mid-April.
CLICK TO READ IN FULL: DFDS shared their current plans for the schedules this week.
The later starting date for the service to Poole is to enable DFDS to complete a £1.5m refit of the high-speed craft Levante Jet to refurbish accommodation and upgrade the on-board restaurant and shopping experience.
The ferry company noted that there was “plenty of scope to add departures to this schedule where there is demand”.
Reacting to the schedule’s release yesterday, Lee Madden, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, said: “Since the start of the year, The Jersey Chamber of Commerce has been heavily involved with the senior management team at DFDS, and via a series of feedback sessions where we outlined areas for improvement to the first draft schedules we were sighted of.
“It is worth noting that the first draft schedules did comply with the service level agreement within their contract and with 35% of the Guernsey business no longer there, the potential for fewer sailings would always exist.”
“DFDS have been in ‘listening mode’ and already taken onboard some of our member suggestions and added several key dates to the original draft schedule,” he continued. “We are assured there will be capacity for further additional services to this route where and when needed, and advised that we will see details for the southbound route schedules next week. Chamber will be reviewing freight sailings in the coming days. We will be engaging with the many businesses reliant on a consistent and regular freight schedule, to continue our feedback to DFDS.”
DFDS has also confirmed that the opportunity for customers to book is still under review, with a backstop date of 31 January, however, with IT testing already underway, they hope this date can be brought forward.
Tim Crowley, Chair of the Chamber Visitor Economy Committee, added: “It would be fair to say that waiting until 31 January is not an ideal situation for customers and crucially for the visitor economy. The delay is frustrating and costly to the industry, but we also understand that DFDS is working hard to deliver a robust booking platform, only having the ability to sign their contract with the Government on the 31st December.
“We would encourage DFDS, Government of Jersey and Visit Jersey to focus on supporting the visitor economy sector by aligning not only their marketing and promotion resources but also their combined investment initiatives to win back those customers potentially lost because they’ve not been able to book. We would be keen to see discounted tickets available to encourage an uplift in bookings to see a recovery for the sector.”
READ MORE…
DFDS releases ‘work in progress’ sailing schedule
DFDS’s Jersey ferry operation expected to generate £50m revenue
Happy New Year! Jersey signs 20-year ferry contract
“We should stand up for what is right” – Brittany Ferries fighting Jersey Minister in Royal Court