Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

7 4 Leading the industry revival FEATURE: STATE OF THE FERRY INDUSTRY E ver-evolving travel restrictions, vaccine and quarantine requirements, and health and safety guidance have made it challenging for Brittany Ferries to operate its popular ro-pax ferry services between the UK and ports in both France and Spain since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only has the operator been forced to continually change its sailing schedules, but it has also had to reimagine its onboard facilities and services by implementing strict new rules and operational procedures to keep passengers and crew safe and healthy. However, despite the unprecedented difficulties caused by the unforeseen pandemic, Brittany Ferries has remained dedicated to delivering the best possible customer experience. Consequently, passenger demand for its services remains high. “Demand itself hasn’t necessarily changed – in fact there’s probably more latent demand than there was before the pandemic because people are looking for safer travel alternatives to airports and aeroplanes,” says Christophe Mathieu, CEO of Brittany Ferries. “Of course, there is a big difference between people aspiring to travel on our ferries and being prevented from doing so by all the rules and restrictions. Post-pandemic, we hope and expect passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels quickly. We anticipate that 2022 will be our comeback year but it may be 2023 before we see ferries as full as they were in 2019.” Over the past 18 months, Mathieu and his team have gained valuable insights and experience that will enable them to make Brittany Ferries stronger and more agile, efficient and resilient for the future. “We have learned to work remotely, although this was not done by choice,” says Mathieu. “Most importantly, we have discovered to be a lot smarter about how and when we spend money. For example, there’s no point in Brittany Ferries investing to heavily promote a ferry service if there is no clarity about Christophe Mathieu shares how Brittany Ferries is making its business more resilient in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and shares his outlook for the future of the ferry sector Brittany Ferries has chartered two new hybrid-electric ro-pax ferries, which will begin services between the UK and France in 2024 and 2025 Photo: Brittany Ferries