French ferry firm travel ban to stop Hit by latest mutant bug
‘We are very sorry to all our customers and are contacting them’
BOSSES at Brittany Ferries were holding emergency talks yesterday as up to a thousand passengers and hundreds of lorries were prevented from boarding vessels between the UK and France due to restrictions imposed to halt the spread of a new strain of coronavirus.
The company said discussions were underway “internally and externally” after France suspended all travel from the UK. Borders were closed from Sunday for at least 48 hours. The UK Government called a meeting of its emergency committee as it grapples with yet another crisis.
Although the French ban appeared set to be lifted later yesterday the temporary suspension of travel caused major concern across the UK with supermarkets warning of shortages of some fresh food on supermarket shelves just days before Christmas.
UK farmers and fishermen who export produce to France were also fearful that perishable produce might be held up as a ban on hauliers crossing via ferries or the Channel Tunnel causes major disruption.
Nations including Germany, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Canada and the Irish Republic all banned travel from the UK after a more infectious variant of coronavirus Its services from Portsmouth to was discovered in London and South ports such as Caen, St Malo and CherEast England. bourg were still running, however, on
For Plymouth-headquartered Brittavessels such as Armorique and Galiny Ferries it meanscia.onlyunaccompanied freight is allowed into the UK and But at the weekend they too were passengers and lorries are not able to suspended affecting about 1,000 pascross the Channel in the other direcsengers and 400 lorries. A Brittany Fertion. ries spokesperson said: “Currently the
The firm, which has been hit hard by French border is closed to arriving anti-coronavirus restrictions and passengers and accompanied freight quarantines in 2020, has already vehicles, so we are unable to carry ceased services from Plymouth to these from Portsmouth to Caen as Roscoff and from Poole to Cherbourg planned. due to “low demand over the low sea“We are still operating services carson, particularly in the current envirying unaccompanied freight vehicles ronment”. from Portsmouth to France, and carry
BRITTANY FERRIES
ing all passengers and freight vehicles from France to the UK. Services to and from Spain are currently operating as normal. We are very sorry to all our customers who have been affected and are contacting them.”
The border closure will affect all passengers and freight vehicles planning travel to France, a spokesman said. “Meetings are currently underway both internally and with external bodies to determine what services we can provide today and tomorrow, and beyond, and I will let you know when I have more information.”
In September, Brittany Ferries Brittany Ferries asked the French government for a tax break as it predicted a 100million-euro loss for 2020.
The firm had been hit hard by the UK-imposed 14-day quarantine the UK imposed on travellers arriving from France and Spain.
It said it was facing the worst crisis in its 47-year existence, and losing cash at a greater rate than following the 2008 financial crisis.
It made drastic changes to schedules to cope with plummeting passenger numbers and took some vessels out of service. However, freight travel remained. The company’s newest vessel, Galicia, entered service in December with room for up to 155 trailers.