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Operator confirms contingency plan for Easter

Charlotte Cox,Channel Islands and
Chris Stone,Jersey
BBC DFDS ferry Tarifa Jet travels into a harbour on a cloudy day. The vessel is half dark blue and half white. It has the DFDS logo on its side written in large white block capitals on the dark blue section of the boat.BBC
The Tarifa Jet's sailing to St Malo on Sunday evening was cancelled

The operator of an inter-island ferry which was damaged after colliding with a harbour berth has confirmed its plans to minimise disruption to Easter holiday crossings.

The damaged Tarifa Jet left St Helier at 09:30 BST on Wednesday, along with two "precautionary" tugs, headed to Portland, near Dorset, for repairs.

The DFDS ferry had suffered damage to its stern in the incident on Sunday, when it made contact with Elizabeth Harbour's east berth as it arrived in St Helier.

DFDS said it had developed a plan to mitigate Easter disruption.

Three people in yellow high-vis jackets with DFDS branding on them inspect the damage caused to the ferry firm's Tarifa Jet vessel in St Helier, Jersey, after it hit a berth in the harbour. Railings have been bent out of shape. White and blue ropes have been tied to the boat.
DFDS said some damage was caused to the stern of the Tarifa Jet

It said there would be an additional vessel and expanded sailing schedules between Jersey, the UK and France over the Easter weekend.

To increase capacity on UK routes, it would deploy Côte d'Albâtre to operate a revised schedule between Portsmouth and Jersey, it said.

The vessel is scheduled to start sailings from Portsmouth at 13:00 BST on Friday afternoon and will continue operating throughout the Easter weekend.

Passengers currently booked on Jersey - Portsmouth and Jersey - Poole services on Sunday and Monday will be transferred to Côte d'Albâtre on the Jersey - Portsmouth route, it added.

In addition, Stena Vinga will begin operating from Thursday evening to provide connectivity between Jersey and St Malo.

DFDS said it had been "working closely with the ports of St Helier and St Malo, to maximise sailing availability", including additional departures on both Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

Customers affected by these schedule changes would be contacted directly by email with their updated travel arrangements, it said.

Longer term, Levante Jet, which is currently undergoing a planned refit in Dunkirk, is expected to return to service next week to replace Tarifa Jet's services.

In the meantime, engineers are making "good progress" with repairs to the harbour berth, aiming to have it "fully operational" by the weekend, Ports said.

It said the west berth remained unaffected and fully operational.

No passengers or crew had been injured in the incident on Sunday, but DFDS said it had to make a number of changes to its sailing schedule.

The Tarifa Jet sails between Jersey, Guernsey and St Malo and has a capacity of 769 passengers and 145 vehicles.

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