The booking boost for summer 2022 has brought renewed optimism, says a Brittany Ferries press release (link below).
+48% more passengers for July-September 2022 (188,878 by the end of October 2021) compared to end of October 2019 (the last pre-Covid comparison year).
+40% UK-France
+35% UK-Spain
+234% France-Ireland
This positive news for Brittany Ferries follows welcome assistance from the French state.
- €45 million was recently authorised by Paris to compensate for passenger travel restrictions that caused Brittany Ferries’ turnover to plummet by €220m in 2020 alone.
- A 10 million waiver for debt contracted with ADEME*
- 6 million aid from the Brittany Region.
- Brittany Ferries has welcomed the extension of so-called “net wage” provisions for French sailors. Announced by president Macron at Les assises de l’économie de la Mer conference in September, this tax break has been extended for three years.
*ADEME is a French state institution that helps companies transition to more environmentally friendly practices. For Brittany Ferries that included support to retro-fit exhaust emission scrubbers to six ships, cutting sulphur and particulate emissions from funnel gases.
“Amid a renewed sense of optimism, I must also add a note of caution,”said CEO Christophe Mathieu. “We still have much work to do in the years ahead. For example, we must not forget the €117 million loan granted last year, which we have repay.”
Figures for the summer seasons of 2020 and 2021 underline just how difficult the last two years have been for Brittany Ferries, as well as the size of the challenge ahead. Around 80 percent of the company’s income comes from passenger traffic and on some lines this dropped to virtually zero. See detailed figures in the press release.
