- Minister to question executives over latest disruption to sailings
- £50 million fast ferry the Condor Liberation has been plagued with problems since its launch last month.
- Passengers facing further disruptions today because of engine problems.
CONDOR executives have been called to a meeting with the Economic Development Minister next week to explain the problems they have had with their new £50 million fast ferry.
The Condor Liberation, which made its first commercial sailing at the end of last month, has been plagued by problems since its launch, and passengers faced further disruption today because of engine problems causing the boat to run slower than usual.
The company announced yesterday that an electrical fault with the engine control unit has still to be fully repaired, which means that the ship is unable to sail to Jersey today because it would not arrive in time before low tide.
The Condor Rapide, which normally runs from Jersey to St Malo, has been diverted to transfer passengers between Jersey and Guernsey.
This caused today’s service to France to be cancelled.
The fault, which means that the vessel is operating on slightly reduced power, was discovered as the ship sailed from Guernsey to Poole on Tuesday.
It comes after a disastrous launch that saw the Liberation hit a fender in Guernsey Harbour on its second commercial sailing, with repairs taking over a week to fix.
Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham confirmed that he is due to meet senior Condor officials in response to the problems.
‘I am disappointed for everyone, including Condor,’ he said. ‘I am meeting them next week and I will expect a full update on the problems.’
Talking about today’s cancellation, Alicia Andrews, executive commercial director at Condor, said: ‘Given the uncertainty regarding the repair time with the engine control unit on the Liberation, we have taken the decision to replan the sailing times.
Keep up to date with the latest Harbour departures here and arrivals here
‘This will involve sailing the Liberation to Guernsey from the UK with the Rapide providing connecting services inter-Island to ensure that all customers can reach their destination.
‘Day trips from Jersey to St Malo have been cancelled as a result of the revised schedule.
‘All affected customers are being contacted and we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience and reassure them that we are doing all we can to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.’
Meanwhile, Ian Barnes, head of the Hospitality Association, has said that Condor should be given time to address the problems with the new ship.
‘My gut feeling is we have to give Condor the opportunity to sort out any snags,’ he said.
‘There are always going to be teething problems with new machinery.’
- Condor Liberation is the companys 16th passenger vessel since it was founded in 1964
- It has a service speed of 35 knots (about 40 mph), which is faster than a great white shark, and its engines have the equivalent power of 50 formula one cars
- There are 33 staff working on the ship on each sailing
- On its maiden voyage from Cebu in the Philippines to Poole, Condor Liberation sailed more than 10,000 nautical miles across the Indian Ocean and along the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea over 22 days
- Each year Condor Ferries carries more than one million passengers and 200,000 passenger vehicles
