Sixty years of Condor serving the Channel Islands

After 60 years of providing ferry services to the Channel Islands, Condor Ferries' relationship with the islands could be set to change.

On Wednesday, Guernsey selected Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder to operate its sea links for the next 15 years.

Brittany Ferries, which is the majority shareholder in Condor Ferries, would use Condor's vessels. The Government of Jersey is yet to make a decision on which company will operate its services.

Condor has been transporting islanders between Jersey and Guernsey and to France since 1964, with a UK route added in 1987, and a high-speed car ferry service to Weymouth from 1993. Two former harbour masters have been reflecting on the company's time serving the islands.

Peter Gill, who was harbour master of Guernsey for eight years between 2005 and 2013, said: "Over the years Condor has helped us in all sorts of ways.

"Certainly with search and rescue, people who’ve been lost overboard, missing yachts and such like."

The company was initially called Commodore from its founding in 1947, before rebranding to Condor Ferries in 1964.

It was also the year when the first hydrofoil ferries arrived in the islands.

Mr Gill said the vessels were distinctive, lifted from the water on fins, and "very exciting to witness" but "most uncomfortable" in bad weather.

The company has a contract with Jersey, which ends on 27 March 2025, and a memorandum of understanding with Guernsey.

Operating between Guernsey, Jersey, the UK and France the firm previously reported carrying just under one million passengers, 200,000 passenger vehicles and 65,000 freight trailers in a year.

During the summer of 2024, the firm said it carried more than 15,000 passengers between Guernsey and Jersey, up on the 8,766 it carried at the same time in 2023.

Condor Ferries has provided 60 years of service to the islands

Brian Nibbs spent more than 20 years working at Jersey Harbours, including time as harbour master and CEO.

"In the early days it was passengers-only with the hydrofoils, we then went through to the early wave piercer, which was again passengers-only," he said.

"The generations of ferries we have now... can go through virtually everything."

Referring to the six decades of running routes between the islands, France and the UK, he said: "I think they provided an acceptable and continuous service to the islands.

"I can remember years ago people would say, 'oh you'll never get a hydrofoil across the Channel', but of course they did - the wave piercer now, what fantastic vessels, you can be across in just a few hours."

Brian Nibbs said the service was always ahead when it came to new vessels

Weather complaints

Dealing with delays and stormy weather are part of running a ferry firm, but Mr Nibbs said some issues were out of the company's control.

He said: "People complain when the conditions are bad, but they really wouldn't want to go out in that weather."

Mr Nibbs said Condor also deserved credit for regularly updating its fleet with ships better suited to the conditions they could face in the Channel.

"They've never been slow in introducing whatever vessels were coming along to the market," he said.

The Condor Islander is the newest vessel in the firm's five-strong fleet