Condor rejects Government invite to extend current contract

Tuesday 12 November 2024

Condor has refused the Government's offer to extend its current ferry contract by seven months.

Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel broke the news to the States Assembly this morning, where he confirmed that a new contract will start at the end of March 2025 with the preferred bidder to be announced "within the next month".

The seven-month offer had been extended to Brittany Ferries – the majority shareholder of Condor Ferries – last week.

It came after Guernsey’s government threw a months-long process to choose the new ferry provider for the Channel Islands into disarray by unilaterally announcing their preferred bid was Brittany Ferries and not DFDS, the Danish ferry provider.

Pictured: Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel revealed that Condor was not accepting the invite to extend its contract by seven months.

This morning's announcement comes just days after Christophe Mathieu, CEO of Brittany Ferries and Condor, claimed that the company had not received “formal notification” of the contract extension offer and were seeking “clarification” and details of “the new Jersey-only tender”.

Deputy Morel told the Assembly that, since Jersey ended its participation in the joint tender process and was looking at a "single-island" option, Condor had advised that it was not accepting the invitation to extend the current contract for seven months beyond the end of March 2025, and that therefore a new contract would be put in place from that date onwards.

He said: "We intend to announce the preferred bidder [for the new contract] within the next month and the chosen operator will begin operating immediately after the current contract finishes."

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