The governments of the both big Channel-Islands Guernsey and Jersey are preparing now actually to tender very long-term their ferry-routes new for the time from 2026. After financial problems of the actually operator CONDOR FERRIES they want now for the future "the best ferry service" for their Islands !
Jersey has 103.000 people, Guernsey 68.000 (+ ca. 2600 people on Alderney and Sark) - so these both big Islands are much bigger than f.ex. Gotland or Bornholm.
With full duty-free possibilities (these Islands are OUTSIDE from UK and also OUTSIDE from EU) and a gigantic future touristic potential these ferry-routes should be very interesting for a lot of ferry-companies. Also both tourism offices, "Visit Guernsey" and "Visit Jersey" are wishing more departures and higher Pax-capacities.
Actually these ferry-routes sadly are massive downrunned since a lot of years with very few slowly departures only for galactic super-expensive prices loosing more and more marketshares to flights or people prefer other touristic destinations with lower ferry-ticket-prices. Bot NOW all ferry-companies are invited to contact the Island-Governments for to get more infos, the detailed tender-papers etc. .
DFDS has already announced that they want to give an offer. The actually operator Condor ferries want also give an offer.
But what about the other Norwegian / Scandinavian ferry-companies ?
Any freight-logistics group similar as f.ex. DFDS without experience with ferry-traffic for tourists to/from Islands and known for high ticket-prices (usually higher ticket-prices to Klaipeda than TT-Line and higher prices at Dover than Irish Ferries and P&O, now also highest prices on the new routes to Morrocco) can not be the wished BEST solution for these both big Islands ! They would only take the financial profit without that anything would be really better for the Islanders and for tourists. Similar also Stena Line if they would offer really their Stena Vinga and Stena New-Max RoRo-freighter - maybe just only for that the competitor DFDS gets not these routes !
My favourite would be Nordic-Ferry-Infrastructure / Molslinjen-group if "the best ferry-service to big Islands" is searched - incl. own ferry-buses similar as their Kombardoexpressen. The airports in London are so far outside away + expensive travel-costs and a lot of more time to the city-center needed then that a fast Catamaran with non-stop-ferry-bus could offer similar travel-times from these Islands up to London-CityCenter - including more Comfort because of no change and with much more baggage / luggage ! But maybe also Fjord1, Norled, Boreal and others would take the chance for to operate these very attractive monopoly-routes will full duty free profits - and on top with the financial support from the Governments from Jersey and Guernsey ?
I list here only a few very positive key-facts:
A) Real many people are living nearby the ferry-ports on land: Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch: 523.000 + 10.000s of tourists in the ca. 60 big beach-hotels there.
Southampton 255.000 and Portsmouth: 209.000. So in England maximum 30 min from the ports are ca. 1 Mio. people living = a super-big potential for duty-free ferry-day-trips to the Islands with their nice very cozy historic cities and a lot of historic sights, many designer-fashion-stores and also UKs warmest and most sunny weather, attractive coast-lines and beaches.
On the other side in France is Saint Malo with (incl. suburbs) more than 70.000 people and in 50 min is Rennes with 223.000 and in 2 hours Nantes with 333.000 people. All these 3 are attractive cities (together much more than 600.000 people) with a lot of historic sights and biggest cheapest shoppingcenters - what is missing on the Channel-Islands.
B) So shopping-tourists are coming from all sides: If the Islanders want to buy a new washingmachine, TV, car, furniture etc. - biggest cheapest shops and chains are usually only in France and England. And for the people living in England and France a duty-free-trip to the Islands with all their small luxury fashion-shops etc. is interesting.
C) A lot of Islanders are working in London, so they are weekdays there in a small apartment - and on weekends in their house in Jersey or Guerrnsey - with or without family. So especially thursday/friday and sunday/monday is a very big potential of "normal" travelers - using today mostly the flights because the ferries has much too less departures, operate too slowly and with much too high ticket-prices. So the people travel 1st with car, taxi or local-bus to the airport on the Island - and then from Gatwick or Stansted (really far outside from London !) with train or bus-connection to London-downtown. But with an own ferry-bus (similar as f.ex. Kombardoexpressen) who collects the people with a small island-circle near their front-doors and driving on the Catamaran as last vehicle just before departure (= without any time-losses) and then from the port in Poole non-stop to London-Victoria central-bus-station the door-to-door time would be ca. the same as with the flights !
And ferry+bus could be offered with much cheaper ticket-prices than the flights also = here is still a gigantic sleeping potential for the ferry-routes ! Who would book anymore a flight without any big luggage/baggage-possibilities and minimum 2 changes and 2-times waiting-times for the next connection if there would be a cheap comfortable double-deck-coach with sleeping-seats, WIFI, TV, usb-sockets, folding-tables etc. nearly as a door-to-door service ?
D) Everything is full duty-free onboard of all routes = highest extra-profit-chances for the ferry-company !
E) The governments of both Islands want support the new ferry-service financial also.
Jersey has 103.000 people, Guernsey 68.000 (+ ca. 2600 people on Alderney and Sark) - so these both big Islands are much bigger than f.ex. Gotland or Bornholm.
With full duty-free possibilities (these Islands are OUTSIDE from UK and also OUTSIDE from EU) and a gigantic future touristic potential these ferry-routes should be very interesting for a lot of ferry-companies. Also both tourism offices, "Visit Guernsey" and "Visit Jersey" are wishing more departures and higher Pax-capacities.
Actually these ferry-routes sadly are massive downrunned since a lot of years with very few slowly departures only for galactic super-expensive prices loosing more and more marketshares to flights or people prefer other touristic destinations with lower ferry-ticket-prices. Bot NOW all ferry-companies are invited to contact the Island-Governments for to get more infos, the detailed tender-papers etc. .
DFDS has already announced that they want to give an offer. The actually operator Condor ferries want also give an offer.
But what about the other Norwegian / Scandinavian ferry-companies ?
Any freight-logistics group similar as f.ex. DFDS without experience with ferry-traffic for tourists to/from Islands and known for high ticket-prices (usually higher ticket-prices to Klaipeda than TT-Line and higher prices at Dover than Irish Ferries and P&O, now also highest prices on the new routes to Morrocco) can not be the wished BEST solution for these both big Islands ! They would only take the financial profit without that anything would be really better for the Islanders and for tourists. Similar also Stena Line if they would offer really their Stena Vinga and Stena New-Max RoRo-freighter - maybe just only for that the competitor DFDS gets not these routes !
My favourite would be Nordic-Ferry-Infrastructure / Molslinjen-group if "the best ferry-service to big Islands" is searched - incl. own ferry-buses similar as their Kombardoexpressen. The airports in London are so far outside away + expensive travel-costs and a lot of more time to the city-center needed then that a fast Catamaran with non-stop-ferry-bus could offer similar travel-times from these Islands up to London-CityCenter - including more Comfort because of no change and with much more baggage / luggage ! But maybe also Fjord1, Norled, Boreal and others would take the chance for to operate these very attractive monopoly-routes will full duty free profits - and on top with the financial support from the Governments from Jersey and Guernsey ?
I list here only a few very positive key-facts:
A) Real many people are living nearby the ferry-ports on land: Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch: 523.000 + 10.000s of tourists in the ca. 60 big beach-hotels there.
Southampton 255.000 and Portsmouth: 209.000. So in England maximum 30 min from the ports are ca. 1 Mio. people living = a super-big potential for duty-free ferry-day-trips to the Islands with their nice very cozy historic cities and a lot of historic sights, many designer-fashion-stores and also UKs warmest and most sunny weather, attractive coast-lines and beaches.
On the other side in France is Saint Malo with (incl. suburbs) more than 70.000 people and in 50 min is Rennes with 223.000 and in 2 hours Nantes with 333.000 people. All these 3 are attractive cities (together much more than 600.000 people) with a lot of historic sights and biggest cheapest shoppingcenters - what is missing on the Channel-Islands.
B) So shopping-tourists are coming from all sides: If the Islanders want to buy a new washingmachine, TV, car, furniture etc. - biggest cheapest shops and chains are usually only in France and England. And for the people living in England and France a duty-free-trip to the Islands with all their small luxury fashion-shops etc. is interesting.
C) A lot of Islanders are working in London, so they are weekdays there in a small apartment - and on weekends in their house in Jersey or Guerrnsey - with or without family. So especially thursday/friday and sunday/monday is a very big potential of "normal" travelers - using today mostly the flights because the ferries has much too less departures, operate too slowly and with much too high ticket-prices. So the people travel 1st with car, taxi or local-bus to the airport on the Island - and then from Gatwick or Stansted (really far outside from London !) with train or bus-connection to London-downtown. But with an own ferry-bus (similar as f.ex. Kombardoexpressen) who collects the people with a small island-circle near their front-doors and driving on the Catamaran as last vehicle just before departure (= without any time-losses) and then from the port in Poole non-stop to London-Victoria central-bus-station the door-to-door time would be ca. the same as with the flights !
And ferry+bus could be offered with much cheaper ticket-prices than the flights also = here is still a gigantic sleeping potential for the ferry-routes ! Who would book anymore a flight without any big luggage/baggage-possibilities and minimum 2 changes and 2-times waiting-times for the next connection if there would be a cheap comfortable double-deck-coach with sleeping-seats, WIFI, TV, usb-sockets, folding-tables etc. nearly as a door-to-door service ?
D) Everything is full duty-free onboard of all routes = highest extra-profit-chances for the ferry-company !
E) The governments of both Islands want support the new ferry-service financial also.