Key figures:

• Turnover: EUR 444.7 million last year compared with EUR 469 million in 2018-19.
• Fleet renewal: Four new LNG-powered vessels to join the fleet (2022-2025) including two LNG-hybrids
• Employment: Around 2,500 employees, including 1,600 seafarers (full-time equivalent)
• Passengers: 1.84 million compared with 2.5 million in 2018-19
• Freight: 167,711 units last year versus 201,554 in 2018-19
• 12 ships connecting France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, via 14 maritime routes
• 12 ports: Roscoff, Saint-Malo, Cherbourg, Caen, Le Havre, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Poole, Cork, Rosslare, Santander, Bilbao.

Bookings are up by 23% so far this year pointing to a recovery towards pre-Covid business volumes. The entire Brittany Ferries fleet of 10 mixed passenger-freight ships will be deployed from the end of this month.

Passenger traffic growth on long-distance routes

Last year, the company carried 1.84 million passengers on all routes, nearly four times as many as were carried in the preceding year (545,000). However, this was still 26% down on the last pre-Covid comparison year. That year – 2018-2019 – nearly 2.5 million passengers travelled across Brittany Ferries’ network (see table below).

Passenger traffic showed stronger results on long-haul routes: those connecting the UK with Spain, France with Ireland and Ireland with Spain. The Irish market recorded particularly strong passenger growth with a 48% increase in volumes carried compared with 2018-2019.

This was in part due to the expansion of Brittany Ferries’ routes connecting France and Ireland, as well as increased frequency on Roscoff to Cork route and the opening of the Cherbourg to Rosslare route to passengers, having previously operated in freight-only mode.

Good freight performance on Irish routes, but decline on the Channel

Freight volumes reached 167,711 units last year, well down on pre-Covid and pre-Brexit volumes. This reduction was largely attributable to reduced volumes on Channel routes, but once again, Ireland stood out in terms of growth for the year. This was largely a consequence of trade flows shifting due to Brexit, as hauliers sought alternatives to the UK landbridge when transporting goods between mainland Europe and Ireland.

Notable events included the arrival of the company’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled ship, SALAMANCA. Brittany Ferries also continued to push forward its multimodal sea-rail project connecting Cherbourg and Bayonne by rail. This unaccompanied-freight service is due to open for business in 2024.

Contributing to economic wealth

 While tourist traffic was significantly lower than before Covid, the company still carried almost 800,000 visitors to France last year.

In total 789 000 individuals came by ferry from the UK and Ireland. They spent 9.1 million bed nights in the Hexagon, spending a total of EUR 815 million. In terms of regional split, Brittany and Normandy were the biggest benefactors (see table below)

Fleet Renewal

SALAMANCA joined the Brittany Ferries family in March 2022. She was the second in a series of five new vessels to join the fleet, in the period spanning 2019 to 2025. It’s all part of the biggest ship renewal programme in Brittany Ferries’ 50-year history, a multi-million-euro investment in a more sustainable future. She was the company’s first vessel to be powered by LNG – followed by SANTONA in March 2023.