DFDS and LD Lines’ joint Calais-Dover service to launch next month

24 Jan 2012 - Shipping

• DFDS and LD Lines look to steal march over rivals with early deployment of service

• Ferry firms will deploy two vessels on cross-channel route from February

DFDS and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LD) Lines newly proposed Dover-Calais ferry service could be in service by as early as next month, according to a DFDS spokesman.

Speaking to the IFW, the spokesman said that the Managing Director of LD Lines, Christophe Santoni, had announced yesterday that the joint-venture will be deploying its service from February 10th at the very latest.

The new service will be operated by two French-flagged vessels, including LD Line’s Norman Spirit. A second vessel will either be taken from one of the respective ferry firm’s operational fleet or chartered-in from another firm, according to the IFW.

DFDS, which already operates a cross-channel service between Dunkirk and Dover, has insisted that its new joint-venture will not affect its existing service in any way.

“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,” the DFDS spokesman added.

Following the collapse of SeaFrance earlier this month, competitors have been quick to make their moves in plugging the gap in a fiercely competitive UK-France freight market.

Eurotunnel also announced its own plans of introducing a revised cross-channel service last week, with the acquisition of three, now out of service, SeaFrance vessels. Eurotunnel hope to establish themselves as the majority partner in a venture that would revitalize the Calais-Dover route by employing a number of former SeaFrance employees.

In a further move that could have prompted the fast tracking of the DFDS-LD Lines’ service, P&O Ferries has also announced that it is to enhance its own Dover-Calais link by introducing an additional vessel capable of carrying up to 170 lorries.