LD Lines and DFDS looking to launch new service asap
January 24, 2012
DFDS and its French partner LD Lines are planning to launch a Calais-Dover ferry service as early as next month, with two French-flagged vessels.
A DFDS spokesman confirmed to IFW that LD Lines MD Christophe Santoni had today revealed that the joint-venture was eyeing an early-February launch – or at the latest, from the 10th of the month.
LD Lines’ Norman Spirit (pictured) will be transferred to Calais and will be joined by a second vessels which will be drawn from the JV’s respective fleets or chartered-in.
Santoni said: “As soon as we have finalised the negotiations we have begun with the port authorities of Calais and Dover on operating agreements, we will start recruiting staff for the Calais-Dover crossing, with priority given to ex-SeaFrance workers,”
DFDS-LD Lines announced earlier this month it was planning to launch a Calais-Dover service following the demise of SeaFrance.
DFDS already operates a Dunkirk-Dover service and the Danish group has made it clear that the Calais service “in no way” called into question the future of the existing route.
“We have said from the outset that these two routes complement each other. From Dunkirk we can reach markets in northern Europe and from Calais those to the south,” a spokesman said.
DFDS-LD Lines’ urgency to launch the service early-February can be viewed as a kind of “pre-emptive strike” before Eurotunnel finalises its own plans for a Calais-Dover route.
The fixed cross-Channel link group is interested in acquiring three of SeaFrance’s ferries – the Rodin, Berlioz and freighter Nord Pas de Calais.
Eurotunnel’s plans focus on becoming the majority partner in a venture to “recreate a cross-Channel ferry service between Calais and Dover”, in partnership with a co-operative of former SeaFrance workers who would operate the vessels. However, no launch date has been announced.
DFDS-LD Lines’ plans could also be prompted by the prospect of P&O Ferries introducing the Spirit of France ferry in the first half of next month. This vessel has capacity for 170 lorries and will join sister ship Spirit of Britain on P&O’s Dover-Calais route.
Courtesy of IFW
