Condor Liberation out of service until December

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Damage to three of the jet propulsion buckets of the Condor Liberation has forced the ferry firm to cancel all of its sailing between now and 6 November. It's then due in dry dock for regular maintenance until 13 December.

The company says the problems to the ‘buckets’ which help guide the ship were discover during a routine inspection in Guernsey yesterday.

Condor says it “is implementing a revised schedule… to maintain passenger and freight services across its network of routes.”

Condor Rapide will now operate cross channel to maintain passenger links between St Malo and the Channel Islands and additionally, between the Islands and Poole. Commodore Clipper will operate her usual services between Portsmouth and the islands keeping the islands connected and supplied with essential freight, with extra space made available for passenger transport where possible.

Condor says customer care teams are calling and texting affected passengers to help them revise their travel plans, and that customers have the option to transfer to an alternative service or receive a full refund. Full details of the revised schedule have been published on the company’s website where information can be found on the EU Passenger Regulations and the appropriate claim form.Paul Luxon, Chief Executive of Condor Ferries, said: “We are very disappointed that it’s necessary to make these changes and everyone understands how important it is for all our passengers to complete their journeys - especially during Half Term. Immediately after the dive confirmed technical issues, our operations team began to implement our contingency plans at 4am this morning and our customer care team have called in extra staff and opened early at 7.30am.

“We believe that with this plan in place, the overwhelming majority of customers will be able travel on the day they had originally booked. We apologise that these regrettable but vital, changes to our schedule will cause disruption to our passengers”