P & O Portsmouth

[robinwolf]

I see the OFT has referred the P&O / Brittany ferries deal to the Competition Commission. This is to continue the Portsmouth - Le Havre route. On their UK web site Brittany regrets this decision, however reports from France are more strongly worded. It seems the Commission will take 6 months to announce their decision & Brittany Ferries are not prepared to wait if there is any likelyhood the decision may go against them. I think all parties hoped the OFT would have given a green light to Brittany, but the lack of competition is clearly a concern.  

In addition the P&O unions @ Portsmouth & Hull have voted for a strike, "possibly during Christmas & New Year". Dover has decided to not strike but take other forms of Industrial action.

Has anyone else heard any more news on this? Suddenly the news is not so good.

Robin Wolf

 

[Will]

I may be wrong, but I don't think this will necessarily stop the service from being continued on a temporary basis.

I don't really see the logic behind this move, the fact that P&O was unable to continue the service was certainly not down to anything Brittany Ferries did. There are those who will say that Brittany Ferries is unfairly subsidised by the French government, but this is a fallacy. Anyway there are plenty of ferry routes in existence in the hands of a single operator.

[Aitch]

Having just made a booking for end of Feb. Portsmouth/ Le Havre, I also enquired about the PO viability over the next few months. Apparently, they are taking bookings for Portsmouth /Le Havre right up to October 2005. Whether this is due to the court action I'm not sure, but it does give some respite for the time being as there is no sign yet of another company stepping in.

Aitch 

[Bilbo]

i suppose once you get passed the mis-management by the head honcho's at P&O and the fact they are now just going to cause as much disruption on the western channel regarding pricing etc... Good for us for the time being.

I see the OFT as only being interested in the assurances from Brittany Ferries that they wont gain a monopoly on the western channel routes by offering their own tour operating arm better rates than any other company wishing to offer packages. they wouldnt do that though would they?Apart from that i cant see the dilema....