In an interview with French BFMTV, Brittany Ferries’ chairman Jean-Marc Roué talks about the return of the passengers, and the challenges.
- Customers are back: 1.9 million pax over 7 months (2.5 million in 2019)
- For the first time the effects of Brexit can be seen in the freight figures on the Dunkerque-Roscoff range: -15% (which is like an economic barometer, in other words, less economic activity and exchange)
- Each crisis is followed by economic disruption. After the crisis of 2008 SEafrance disappeared. This year a ‘major Channel ferry operator’ fired 800 British crew members, and replaced them with staff from Peru, Boliva, Madagascar etc. “I am happy for them but they don’t have social security,” says Roué.
- “We could call it ultra-liberalism. I call it the laws of the jungle.”
- “Would the French passengers accept to work with the labour conditions of the people who serve them onboard? No way!”
- “There was a modus vivendi on the Channel, with A British Flag and a French flag. This is gone. The British Government is trying to rebuild this modus vivendi. DFDS, Stena Line, Condor Ferries and Brittany Ferries have decided to sign an agreement, when it’s ready. P&O, Irish Ferries and Cobelfret said no.”
Roué asks French Ministers to fight social dumping, to create rules. “Shipping does not have EU rules as aviation or transportation sectors.”
