Brittany Ferries launches legal action against Jersey minister

Condor Ferries’ parent company was granted permission to pursue judicial review proceedings against Deputy Kirsten Morel’s decision earlier this month to award Jersey’s ferry routes to Danish firm DFDS, despite Brittany Ferries submitting the only legally compliant bid to the original joint Channel Islands’ tender process.

The case started in front of a single judge in Jersey’s Royal Court this morning.

The chief executive of Brittany Ferries and Condor, Christophe Mathieu, wrote to his staff late yesterday to explain the reasons for the court action.

‘We feel very strongly that we should stand up for what is right and for what all of our staff deserve, after many years of dedicated service to the islands,’ said Mr Mathieu.

‘Last Friday, I attended the Royal Court in Jersey to challenge the government’s decision to appoint DFDS. During the hearing, I highlighted serious concerns regarding the fairness and legality of the process and asked the judge to conduct an investigation. This is still ongoing and I will be in touch when there is more to share.

‘Ultimately, we won the joint tender, but Jersey simply refused to accept the result. They then started a second process with a predictable outcome.’

Deputy Morel had previously outlined fears about a legal challenge in the States Assembly in Jersey.

In announcing that the chief officer of the island’s Department for the Economy, Richard Corrigan, was stepping down from the process having been spotted apparently offering online support for DFDS, Deputy Morel admitted under questioning that he was concerned about legal risks in the process, though he was convinced that Mr Corrigan had demonstrated no bias in the process.

Following the lengthy joint tender process, Guernsey’s Economic Development Committee appointed Brittany Ferries/Condor on a 15-year deal, but Deputy Morel said Jersey was concerned about Condor’s finances and opened a new rapid tender process, which DFDS won.

Brittany Ferries/Condor released its 2025 Guernsey-only schedule last month, including improved sailings to the UK and a daily service to St Malo, and Mr Mathieu said yesterday that ‘feedback and initial bookings have been very positive’.

At the same time, DFDS was announcing that Jersey’s 2025 ferry timetable had been delayed again.

It released an outline of sailings it hopes to run in July and August but put back release of its full schedule until January.

It said further discussions were needed with ports in St Helier, Poole, Portsmouth and St Malo.

‘We appreciate that everyone is keen to learn about the schedules and we are working to get this done as quickly as possible,’ said DFDS Jersey route director Chris Parker.

‘Our focus is to get the schedules right and we want to make sure that we consider all the diverse needs of the island for both passenger and freight transport, as well as the operational dependencies of the ports we serve.’

The outline timetable released by DFDS included more sailings between Jersey and St Malo at weekends, but otherwise Jersey’s sailings to France and the UK look set to be no more frequent or convenient than Guernsey’s, and in some cases less so.

When Jersey announced DFDS as its operator, it said it expected more frequent ferries to the UK and France in peak periods.

However, the outline schedule suggests that the frequency of high-speed ferries from Jersey to both the UK and France could be reduced, compared to the services operated previously by Condor.