January 18, 2018
Brittany Ferries will start a new freight and passenger ferry route with a chartered ship.
- Route: Cork (Ireland) – Santander (Spain).
- Frequency: two direct sailings weekly + an additional weekly return sailing from Cork to Roscoff.
- Ship: CONNEMARA, which is a Visentini ro-pax built as BORJA in 2007 and owned by Stena RoRo. She has a lane meter capacity of 2,255 and will take 500 passengers. There is space for 195 cars. UNtil now on charter to Anek Lines, as ASTERION.
- Start: end of April 2018. Bookable end of January.
- Type of product: ro-pax “économy’ brand, not cruise ferry.
- Brittany Ferries expects a fifty-fifty split between passengers and freight.
- The company already operates a Cork – Roscoff (France) ro-pax route since 40 years.
- Target 1: Freight (avoiding the land bridge via the United Kingdom).
- Target 2: Tourism between Ireland and so-called “green’ Spain.
The vessel will not fly the French flag, but a European flag, said President Jean-Marc Roué in the French press release, and added that Brittany Ferries announced in 2017 the intention to have two new ships built.
