New ferry Norman Spirit gets Champagne launch
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The fierce battle for freight and
passengers on the Dover-Calais route is renewed today with
the Champagne launch of a new ferry service.
The Norman Spirit is due to leave
Dover at 1.30pm, signalling a new period of price competition on
the short-sea route in the wake of the demise of SeaFrance.
Since the French-owned operation was
suspended in November and later collapsed into liquidation, P&O
Ferries has had the Dover-Calais market to itself. The Dover-based
giant has invested £300m in two new superferries the Spirit of
Britain and the Spirit of France which recently made their
inaugural crossings.
With Eurotunnel providing the main
cross-Channel competition, with more than 50% market share, P&O
now faces a new rival, albeit on a smaller scale, in a DFDS
Seaways/LD Lines consortium offering just one ship for the moment
but promising to add a second. DFDS already operates the
Dover-Dunkirk service (formerly Norfolkline) and LD Lines
previously ran a Dover-Boulogne service.
Kent glamour girl Kelly Brook is
expected to don sailor’s uniform to officially launch the new
service.
She will be joined by Carsten Jensen,
senior vice-president of DFDS Seaways and Christophe Santoni,
managing director of LD Lines, at a lively dockside ceremony.
Organisers promise bottles of bubbly
will be popped, a plaque presentation by Dover Harbour Board,
and ribbon-cutting. A Port of Dover tug has been booked
to accompany the Norman Spirit as it leaves harbour, firing its
water cannon and sounding its horn.
Friday, February 17 2012
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