Ferryfile: Sailing through a storm

Dover-Calais ferry operators must be wondering if the Dover Straits should be renamed ‘Dire Straits’ as fares tumble amid massive overcapacity and falling demand. P&O Ferries and SeaFrance sailings have also suffered big delays since February, when a broken ramp cable put one of the large berths in Calais out of use. With another berth closed for refurbishment, this left just one of the three berths for large ferries operational.

P&O Ferries and SeaFrance sailings have also suffered big delays since February, when a broken ramp cable put one of the large berths in Calais out of use. With another berth closed for refurbishment, this left just one of the three berths for large ferries operational.

P&O Ferries said it lost 20% of sailings in the first quarter, causing a near 20% drop in passengers and costing the business more than £5 million.

SeaFrance managing director Robin Wilkins said: “I’m concerned the collapse of the berth in Calais has dented confidence in the quality of service ferries offer. I would like the Calais Chamber of Commerce to take action to rebuild that confidence.”

The refurbished berth reopened on May 17, so delays should now be at a minimum. Sadly, competition and falling prices are harder to deal with.

Wilkins added: “The effect of the low-cost airlines on our business is just a convenient excuse for our problems, which are more to do with the amount of capacity from Dover and the very vigorous competitive situation, which has meant a fall in average revenues.”

Car carryings last year were down just over 3% on 2003 to 3,507,000. Over the period 2000-04, they fell 7%.

After a business review last year, P&O cut its Dover-Calais service from seven to five passenger ships and cut its daily crossings to 35. However, Hoverspeed has about 12% more capacity this summer year-on-year and has added late-evening sailings for school holidays and the summer peak, while SeaFrance now has a new 1,900-passenger ferry, SeaFrance Berlioz.

There are also Norfolkline services from Dover to Dunkirk, SpeedFerries from Dover to Boulogne and up to four trains an hour from Folkestone to Calais/Cocquelles.

P&O spokesman Brian Rees estimated there was still 50% overcapacity in the market. It is offering all-time-low fares from £30 one-way. He said: “The restructure has taken £1.5 million out of the business and lets us compete at these prices. It has been very painful, but it is working.”<

Hoverspeed, which has its own ports in Dover and Calais and has escaped the berthing chaos, also restructured and offers fares from £29 one-way.

“Forward bookings are in line with last year but we can’t get the same prices,” said general manager sales UK David Stafford. “We have to work a lot harder to make ends meet.

“Prices have flattened out and will start to go up – but not this year,” he added.

Wilkins said: “Prices won’t ever return to the levels of three or four years ago. We have seen the end of high levels in the peak periods.”

Eurotunnel is widely blamed for the situation – it initiated the race to lower prices – but SpeedFerries, the low-cost company operating from Dover to Boulogne, is also not too popular.

Rees said SpeedFerries – with one fast ferry taking 800 passengers and 200 cars on up to five return crossings a day – was too small to make an impact. But SeaFrance’s Wilkins said it had “threatened our profitability by implying that a certain level of fare is profitable”. He added: “Also, it reduced fares despite promising it would not do so. I don’t mind competition but it must be fair.”

SpeedFerries launched last May with fares from £50 return, but now has fares from £19 one-way. Marketing manager Marianne Illum said the lowering of fares was a reaction to other companies’ predatory pricing.

She said: “We can do it because we are a low-cost operator. It hasn’t hit our bottom line, as we are selling more tickets.”

It is negotiating for a second fast ferry, which could start this summer. Illum said: “We know how many people we have to turn away because sailings are sold out, so we are confident we can fill a second vessel.”