P&O Ferries: First Dover to Calais ferry cleared to sail

P&O Ferries services were suspended after the company sacked 800 workers

The first P&O ferry that operates from Dover to Calais has been cleared to sail again.

The Spirit of Britain had been detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

It has been conducting trial sails up and down the English coast between Dover and New Romney, a marine traffic website has shown.

Safety fears were raised after P&O replaced nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency staff last month.

The marine traffic website, which shows the live positions of ships, reports the ferry's destinations as "TRIALS".

P&O tweeted on Saturday morning that its services remain suspended.

The MCA previously said the Spirit of Britain "has been released from detention and can commence operations when P&O Ferries are ready".

The firm suspended most of its sailings but reportedly only expected the disruption to last up to 10 days.

However inspections prevented a number of ferries from operating, which contributed to major travel disruption near Dover in the run-up to, and during the, Easter holidays.

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When the Spirit of Britain was detained earlier this month, P&O Ferries were told to fix a number of safety issues before a second inspection by the MCA.

P&O operates four ferries across the English Channel between Dover and Calais.

The Pride of Kent remains under the detention of the MCA and two other P&O ferries on this route have yet to be inspected.

The removal of these four P&O ferries from service had a substantial impact on passenger and freight traffic, affecting both holidays and trade.

The Easter holidays created a major bottleneck, as thousands of lorries queued to cross the channel alongside families going on holiday in Europe. There were also problems with a key IT system for custom checks at the UK's busiest port after Brexit.

The last week has seen problems ease as holidays ended, which meant capacity has improved. Trade volumes are often lower in the week after a major bank holiday.

The European Highlander, a P&O ferry that operates between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland, has been found to have a "small number of deficiencies" that need to be addressed before it can resume service, the MCA said.

P&O currently has one ferry, the European Causeway, operating on this route between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Other ferries that have been inspected and cleared to sail by the MCA include the Pride of Hull, Norbay and the European Causeway.

The Pride of Hull, which operates between Hull and Rotterdam; Norbay, which runs from Liverpool to Dublin; European Causeway (Larne - Cairnryan) and Spirit of Britain (Dover - Calais) have been inspected and cleared to sail by the MCA.