Brittany Ferries has reported its busiest-ever sales day as bookings opened for 2025 while confirming start dates for two new hybrid ships.
The ferry operator published 2025 timetables for crossings to western France and northern Spain, with new ship St Malo due to operate from February 12 and Guillaume de Normandie to start on April 18.
On the first day of going on sale the company reported an 18% hike on last year’s opening day with nearly 7,000 customers booking – making it the busiest day in its history.
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It attributed the booking spike to the introduction of its two ‘greener’ hybrid electric ferries from early next year and to increasing demand for pet-friendly travel.
The ferry firm is offering 98 weekly cross-Channel sailings linking Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth directly with St Malo and Roscoff in Brittany, and Caen, Cherbourg and Le Havre in Normandy.
Also on offer are up to 12 weekly long-haul sailings between Portsmouth and Plymouth and Santander and Bilbao in northern Spain.
Saint-Malo will replace Brittany Ferries’ Bretagne ship on the Portsmouth to St Malo route while Guillaume de Normandie will join the Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham) route, sailing three times a day, replacing the ferry Normandie. It will operate the route in tandem with Mont St Michel.
The ferries will home port in Portsmouth and will be the first on the English Channel powered by hybrid-Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) electric propulsion, equipped with the largest batteries of any ferry worldwide.
They will be capable of plugging into shore-based power supplies, where port infrastructure allows, and by doing so are estimated to reduce their emissions by around 15%.
Both ships have been purpose-built. Saint-Malo will offer 28 pet-friendly cabins for the first time on the Portsmouth to St Malo route. Guillaume de Normandie will have 22 pet-friendly cabins on its Portsmouth to Caen route. Seven ships in total will offer pet-friendly cabins with 168 across the fleet.
The new cabins will be accessed from the garage deck and boast a laminate floor and access to a dedicated pet promenade area on the outside decks. On the first day of 2025 sales, 50% of bookings included a pet and 46% included a pet cabin.
The ships will also offer a wider range of deluxe cabin grades and will have cabins furnished specifically for passengers with allergies.
Sales and marketing director Paul Acheson said: “Our 2025 schedule launch has been our busiest ever, and it’s exciting to see so much interest already in our two brand new cruise-ferries Saint-Malo and Guillaume de Normandie.
“We look forward to revealing more details about these two new ships in the coming weeks and months. But they’re on schedule and now open for bookings, and we’re looking forward to welcoming aboard their first customers next spring.”