P&O Ferries and its routes in peril
Cargo and passenger ferry operator P&O Ferries has laid off 800 members of its workforce of 3,000. The running services have also been blanked "for the next few days", as the company said.
In a statement, P&O Ferries described its current economic difficulties: "We have made a GBP 100 million loss year on year, which has been covered by our parent DP World. This is not sustainable."
The nature of the changes planned was not disclosed at this stage and no warning was issued to freight forwarders and transport companies beforehand, which has led to long queues of trucks and cars in front of ports.
The company was taken over by Dubai-based DP World in 2019. It still operates four routes between England, France, the Netherlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Besides Dover to Calais and Hull to Rotterdam, there are also connections from Liverpool to Dublin and from Cairnryan, Scotland, to Larne, Northern Ireland, in operation. The loop between Hull and Zeebrugge, Belgium, was cancelled in January 2021. (sh)