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.

After 14 months of layup at the Perama Repair Zone, the Italian-built EXPRESS PEGASUS of Hellenic Seaways is probably being prepared to go. The ship is out of service since August 2020. Her branding has already been removed.

The ports of Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn have invested simultaneously in onshore power with the same standards.

All of the ferries operating on Stockholm – Helsinki and Stockholm – Tallinn, already connect to shore power. Now the final part of the puzzle is in place to make it possible for the ferries operating on the Helsinki – Tallinn route to connect to shore power.

Due to increasing demand on the UK, CLdN Ro-Ro will be introducing a 7th sailing on the Zeebrugge –Killingholme service.

As from week 45 the service will run daily (Mon-Sun), offering an overnight connection between the port of Zeebrugge and Killingholme.

Since Brexit , CLdN experiences a growing and ongoing demand for unaccompanied transport between the UK and the Continent.

The modal shift towards unaccompanied transports underlines the need for more efficient transport in view of an ongoing lack of truck-drivers in the Uk and on the continent.

CLdN writes on LinkedIn that it is a top performer for CO2 emissions per tonne of freight carried. This statement is based on public MRV data for pure freight ro-ro vessels, as published on EMSA/Thetis-MRV.

CLdN RoRo says that, with a weighted average emission for its fleet of 36 g CO2/tonne-km ( or 67 g CO2/tonne-nm) in 2020, CLdN RoRo emitted 17% less greenhouse gas per tonne of cargo carried than their second best competitor.

Typical emissions of other modes of freight transport:

Plane: 1036 g CO2/tonne-km

Truck: 137 g CO2/tonne-km

Train: 24 g CO2/tonne-km

CLdN RoRo vessel HERMINE: 21g CO2/tonne-km.

This means HERMINE emits less carbon than a train, concludes CLdN RoRo.

CLdN’s ambition is to further reduce its carbon footprint and to maintain its position as greenest ro-ro operator by:

• Slow steaming
• Innovative propulsion
• Operational efficiency

CLdN asked PwC to run an independent check and the report can now be downloaded via below link (click on page to go to https://www.cldnroro.com/downloads and then go to “Cases”).