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By | 2019 Newsletter week 26 | No Comments

Brittany Ferries to Charter Another Visentini Ferry from Stena RoRo

Brittany Ferries is going to charter an additional ferry ahead of the 2020 season. The ship is currently sailing in the Adriatic as AF MICHELA.

There are three main reasons for the charter:

  • During winter, Brittany Ferries have to send their ferry PONT-AVEN to a yard to have one of her four engines replaced. That will take almost 3 months.
  • To cope with potential delays in the delivery of HONFLEUR, under construction in Flensburg.
  • Generate additional capacity to prepare for the impacts of Brexit, should it happen at the end of October.

The chartered ro-pax will be operated from November 2019 until November 2020. She will take over Brittany Ferries sailings from Cork to Santander.

CONNEMARA, which operates between Cork and Santander today, will be brought under the French-flag. This is six months earlier than originally planned and reinforces Brittany Ferries commitment to the employment of French seafarers, a very important issue in France.

Following her re-flagging, CONNEMARA will be free to cover scheduled dry-dock periods for other vessels over the winter and to release ETRETAT (currently operating Portsmouth to Le Havre) to cover services from the UK to Spain in April.

Elb-Link filed for bankruptcy

By | 2017 Newsletter week 48 | No Comments

It is not a surprise. For the third time the cross-Elbe ferry company did not survive in spite of rescue attempts. Depending on the sources, several reasons are being given for the failure.

  • Insufficient cars, cargo and passengers or, ship that was too large.
  • Insufficient support from local authorities on both sides of the river. Elb-Link asked for a public bridging loan of EUR 200,000 but this wasn’t granted.
  • Increased charter rate of the ferry upon renewal of contract (EUR 8,000/day). Management of Elb-Link says a more realistic price would be EUR 3,500.

Photo: Elb Link