While part of him was excited see the start of the new era for the company in Guernsey, he said he still had feelings of anger, frustration and disappointment at how the ferry tender process had concluded without Brittany being able to serve both islands.
‘The consequence of that is also the fact that we have to lose quite a few colleagues that were in Condor,’ he said.
In total about 200 crew and shore-based staff were let go.
‘This is almost impossible to swallow, especially after all the saga of the two RFPs [requests for proposal],’ he said.
‘But we are grown up, we’re professional. We served both islands to the last day of our contract. We did what was right. The people in Condor were professional to the last minute, and they need to be respected for that.’
Brittany had a good relationship with the States and it was pleased to be serving Guernsey, he said.
‘We are going to do what we said we were going to do, which is to be as much as we can a facilitator for the economy of Guernsey and serving it as well as Condor served it for the last 50 years.’
Two vessels will operate between the island, the UK and France, with the Voyager providing a fast ferry service, and the Islander ferry, bought by the States of Guernsey and leased to Brittany, offering a slower, conventional operation.
The Commodore Clipper will be used as a standby should either of the other ferries experience a problem, said Mr Mathieu.
Both the Voyager and Clipper will be repainted in the Brittany Ferries’ livery when they go into dry dock next winter.
That will mark the end of the Condor name in the island. Mr Mathieu said that the States had requested that the branding be changed.
‘But we were also keen to use our brand, because that makes it more visible, and also it shows our commitment.’
He explained why the company had decided to keep just one fast ferry.
‘When it comes to having two fast craft, I don’t think there is enough market at the moment to have two serving Guernsey,’ he said.
Bookings for the northern routes to Portsmouth and Poole were looking about the same levels as last year, but he said the French market was showing signs of being particularly good, apparently due to a lot of people wanting day trips from St Malo to the island.
Mr Mathieu said he expected to see a surge of French visitors in the island over the summer – and day one got off to a promising start.
Looking ahead, he hoped to be able to integrate Guernsey into the company’s wider network, potentially offering stop-overs in the island. While St Malo, Poole and Portsmouth will have regular sailings throughout the week, there will be only one to Jersey, every Wednesday.
Because of the loss of staff in Jersey, Mr Mathieu said passengers on this sailing to Jersey will be served at the other end by Guernsey staff members who will travel over with them.
