To enhance the ferry offering to freight customers through shorter waiting times, as well as improving the efficiency of the ferry infrastructure between the UK and the EU, DFDS has entered into a mutual space charter agreement with P&O Ferries on the Dover-Calais ferry route.
The space charter agreement means that freight customers will be able to board the next available sailing on the Dover-Calais route, regardless of which of the two companies is operating the crossing. All commercial activities and relationships with freight customers remain entirely under the control of each operator.
The new space charter agreement will shorten the ferry journey time by up to 30 minutes and reduce queuing in Dover and Calais.
DFDS operates three combined freight and passenger ferries between Dover and Calais while P&O Ferries operates five ferries on the same crossing. In addition, DFDS will continue to operate three combined freight and passenger ferries between Dover and Dunkirk.
“We are pleased to offer Channel freight customers more choice and flexibility as well as to improve the efficiency of this vital ferry infrastructure between the UK and the EU”, says Peder Gellert Pedersen, Executive Vice President, DFDS Group, and Head of Ferry Division.
The Dover-Calais space charter agreement is expected to start during the summer.
The Dover-Calais agreement is similar to space charter agreements entered into by DFDS on routes on the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and in the Mediterranean.