Brittany Ferries to cut passenger sailings

Brittany Ferries' vessels were already operating at less than full capacity to facilitate social distancing

A ferry firm is to reduce passenger sailings due to falling demand following the introduction of quarantine rules.

Brittany Ferries said it was laying up two ships and altering its schedule on routes from Portsmouth and Plymouth.

About 50,000 passengers with sailings already booked are likely to be be affected.

The company said the quarantine measures were having an "immediate and profound" impact on demand.

Brittany Ferries resumed limited operations in June, more than three months after they were suspended due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

'No choice'

It announced reductions to its schedule to come in to effect at the end of August which would entail two vessels - Armorique and Bretagne - being laid up to help reduce operating costs.

Director general Christophe Mathieu said the changes were "regrettable".

"In the context of a terrible summer season we have no choice but to consolidate sailings that, by virtue of lack of passenger numbers, are uneconomic to run," he added.

Earlier this month thousands of holidaymakers saw their plans thrown into chaos after the government announced anyone returning from France would have to isolate for 14 days.

The quarantine measure was imposed for Spain on 25 July.

Brittany Ferries normally operates routes from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander and Bilbao and cross-Channel ferries to France from Cork, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth and Rosslare - although Poole was not being served this summer.

Analysis

By Paul Clifton, BBC South transport correspondent

Brittany Ferries was already having a dreadful summer. Each sailing in its reduced schedule was already less than half full, to comply with social distancing.

In a normal summer, Brittany Ferries carries more than 800,000 holidaymakers. This year the number is below a third of that - traffic has simply collapsed.

And mere rumours that the French will soon impose a similar restriction on British people crossing the Channel has led tens of thousands of passengers to cancel their bookings.

If you face two weeks of quarantine after a two-week holiday - and perhaps soon while you are on holiday as well - a trip to France becomes pointless.

Like many British transport operators, Brittany now needs government cash to keep going.

So it is stripping out spare capacity and laying up ships, and most sailings will just bring freight from France and Spain.