DFDS announced over the weekend that it would not operate any inter-island sailings this summer.
Earlier this year the States knocked back its approach to sail to Guernsey on a Friday evening and head on to England, returning to Jersey via Guernsey on a Monday.
DFDS was offering tickets on a few day-trip sailings on Mondays. But at the weekend it withdrew them all and offered to refund any bookings.
Economic Development said that it only recently discovered that DFDS had been selling these inter-island sailings – two in July and three in August – and no licence had been issued by the Guernsey authorities.
‘To be unambiguous – the sailings DFDS claims are being "cancelled" were never authorised by Guernsey in the first place,’ said Economic Development president Sasha Kazantseva-Miller.
She said she remained open to talks with DFDS and the incoming Jersey government in the months to come over inter-island sailings.
She said that her committee was working with all the Bailiwick operators to manage periods of exceptional demand, which she said worked over the Muratti and Siam Cup weekend earlier this month, and that Economic Development had also proactively approached DFDS ahead of that weekend when it became clear that there was demand for more sailings.
Ferry operators have met with the States as part of a ferry working group it set up late last year, but Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said these meetings were largely focused over the winter to plan the following year’s summer schedule.
‘Its focus is on coordinating additional sailings around annual events and sailings between the islands’ operators,’ she said.
The DFDS offer was rejected in March, with the States citing departures outside of the times of Guernsey’s standard harbour operations, operational unreadiness and the lack of provision for Guernsey passengers.
Friday night departures would have needed the harbour to stay open later and cost the island more.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller had also said that it was ‘questionable’ whether DFDS could have delivered this schedule.
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