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Condor Ferries gives Jersey travellers the winter they asked for

Condor Ferries’ winter 2011/12 schedule for sailings between the Channel Islands, France and the UK introduces some changes designed to improve services for islanders.

Condor Ferries has consulted passengers extensively for feedback about their preferred times of travel and, where possible, has reflected those
preferences in the schedules across its network of routes.

As part of this survey, more than 600 Channel Islanders were asked to provide information about their preferred departure and arrival times, and in addition to the customer survey, Condor Ferries has analysed booking data from previous winters.

At a time when many transport providers are cutting back on services, Condor Ferries has increased the number of sailings on the routes between Jersey and the UK by a further 4% and by 3% on the Jersey to France route.

Many of these extra sailings are at the most popular travelling times such as Christmas, New Year and also the half-term
school holidays.

This is the second successive increase in ferry services over the past two winters and is in response to significant increases in the number of passenger choosing to travel by ferry.

There is a sailing to St Malo every Friday afternoon throughout the winter period. Seven of these sailings can be considered ‘after work’ departures. However, customer feedback has shown that most Jersey users of the route to St Malo preferred an earlier departure with a resulting earlier arrival in France to allow time to travel on to their final destination.

Therefore, the majority of departures are earlier in the day although more than 90% of the Friday afternoon departures take place after 3pm.

Simon Edsall, managing director Condor Ferries, said: “We believe this schedule meets the needs of the majority of our customers very well and
I’m delighted to be able to offer an even wider choice of sailings across our routes this winter compared with 2010.

“We have taken account of the feedback from hundreds of passengers and analysed the travel pattern of the thousands who travelled last year to provide the maximum benefit to the maximum number of people.”

“Our research found that more than two thirds of passengers from Jersey to St Malo prefer to depart in the morning or the afternoon. This compares to just a quarter who prefer to sail inthe early evening or evening. In addition to this, occupancy on last year’s extra Friday evening
sailings to France was as low as 7% and on all but two of the extra “after work” sailings, was 25% or below.”

Edsall added: “A team has been working to develop and refine this schedule for many months and we believe we have found the best way to support islanders by tailoring the schedule to their stated preferences and the actual usage data from previous years.”

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