French ferry once again at sea between Calais-Dover crossing

French ferries were at sea once again providing service between Calais and Dover. My Ferry Link is a new company, created nine months after the defunct ferry company, SeaFrance, was forced to halt its fleet after claiming bankruptcy.

Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

The new My Ferry Link fleet is actually made up of three ferries that used to belong to SeaFrance. The boats are now owned and rented by Eurotunnel, which bought them up after SeaFrance defected in January.

“What is important today is that we are back at sea. The ships have not been to Dover since November. It’s essential that both the boats and the crew are going back there,” said Jean-Michel Giguet president of My Ferry Link.

This is a new adventure for the former SeaFrance employees who were recently rehired. In total, nearly 400 people now make up the workforce of My Ferry Link.
However how the company is run will change from previous times. The new ferry operator is now a cooperative controlled primarily by the workers.

The Dover-Calais crossing is one of the more competitive markets. Since November, the service was only provided by two British companies: P&O Ferries and LDA. My Ferry Link, the only French company, is hoping to have a bigger hold of this market through cargo and passenger operations.