Sea services survey could mean rivals or regulation for Condor
Thursday 10th June 2010, 11:30AM BST.
CONDOR could face greater regulation or competition as islanders are surveyed as to what they want from their sea links.
Commerce and Employment minister, pictured, said the joint initiative between Guernsey and Jersey would help shape car and passenger ferry links.
‘We have an agreement with Condor which will expire at the end of 2013, so now is the time to go out and get feedback on competition, licensing and regulation in the market,’ she said.
Both the French and English routes were open to competition and some had been seen on the French route, although it was not sustainable, said Deputy McNulty Bauer.
- The consultation is available at www.gov.gg/ccm/navigation/commerce—employment/published-reports.
The deadline for responses is 2 September.
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I actually hope that the next (or Condor) will have more directs to St Malo, always via Jersey is a pain.
More routes to the continent would also benefit Guernsey to receive more long weekend tourists and most importantly retain our French background, we are getting a little bit normal mainland lately. To my opinion good continent connections (incl flights perhaps) brings balance.
hope you agree!
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I think Condor does a good job under the circumstances. The fares are probably higher than they should be considering the standard of the boats used – particularly the UK routes.
They are desperately in need of up-grading.
What really annoys me however is the awful schedules in the winter months. Up until May it is not possible to travel to the UK on a regular schedule. I do think this should be looked at. After all it is not only in the summer people want to travel – it is a year round requirement and Condor just do not come up to standard here. I travel with them probably 4 to 5 times year and it is funny that when you check in you just always have this horrible feeling that there is going to be a delay! And there usually is!
The French sector should definitely be a direct service. It is always annoying having to go via Jersey. I am sure the demand is there.
Another really annoying aspect of travelling Condor and it is probably not only them that suffer – but can something not be done about the doors that open onto the rear deck. I find it extremely annoying when people go out for a smoke (with which I have no problems) that the smoke gets sucked into the rear cabin area plus usually a solid draft of cold air. This combined with the aromea of Chilli con Carne from the restaurant and vomit can be quite unpleasant!
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Direct routes to St. Malo have always been a need and want of the Guernsey travelling public. As a former member of staff at Emeraude Lines, I saw first hand the desire and need from our clients to have these included in the timetables. Summer sailings often included direct sailings to and from St. Malo onboard Solidor 4, allowing full day trips to France, something which has not been regularly possible since Emeraude were forced to pull out of Guernsey in 2003, after a price war with Condor Ferries saw massive losses incurred pver the summer season. Emeraude were a very popular company, and I believe is still held in good memory by a lot of islanders. Competition is good, when it is managed. Price wars are unsustainable and will cause damage to one or other companies, and therefore a realistic range of prices should be agreed with the Island Governments as part of any SLA. I also urge fair pricing from the UK and France to the islands, where costing is prohibitive to tourists.
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Wish we could have like a bus boat service around the islands.
Just turn up to the White Rock and jump on to a busboat to whichever other channel island you want to go to.
Regular service ofcourse so’s you could visit Jersey and return on the same day for instance.
Reckon it could be done and have a serious impact re uniting our islands.
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Condor provide a sterling service, but their prices are high. It used to be alot cheaper to sail than to fly, but the prices are getting very similar these days.
I don’t think regulation is the answer, the OUR have already ruined local businesses.
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The retailer John Lewis has the PR line – ” Never knowingly undersold”
Condors should be “Never knowingly on time”
After 18 years as a tourist I cannot remember getting anywhere on Condor on time
June 3rd the Weymouth was 3 hours late in calm weather, calm sea – 3 engines yet again!!
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I agree Jim, it would be good if too if we had a service that could give us day trips to Saint Malo like Emeraud used to
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condor do a good job, yes a few problems, but please do not think cheaper is good, just look at h.d. ferries what a disaster, cheap and nasty
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Travel to and from these Islands will never be cheap in the way that some cross channel routes and airlines are simply because there will never be the volume of passengers.
Anyone with a memory of past years will know that in real terms in comparison to wages the prices on Condor are probably cheaper now than years ago.
It would be very nice to have an earlier sailing to St Malo, now that Rapide is on the route the previously ok departure of 13:15 has now changed to 14:30 which arrives at St Malo around 17:30
not much time to travel anywhere far if you are travelling further afield in Europe than Brittany or Normandy.
Jersey always seems to gety the better service to France, no doubt because it is closer and probably more passengers, so they get 2 sailings a day while we only get the 1. Condors schedules are a little odd at times and great at others.
Emeraude had a good service generally but never had big enough boats and were muscled out by Condor, though in reality there is only room for one carrier.
I cannot believe C & E are suggesting a new regulator for this, wasn’t there something about saving money mentioned in the States recently!!
I’m sure the current system is good enough, at least the States are looking to get agreements sorted for 2013, you never know they might even get done on time..!!
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Condor do not provide us with a good service. A lack of competition keeps their prices high, and standards low.
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If Condor took a few lessons from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company on how to sail in more than a breeze and on how to run an efficient ferry service between islands and mainland they would indeed be able to offer Guernsey a tip top service.
The motto of The Scillonian [Condor equivalent in the Isles of Scilly] is that not sailing is not an option and not being on time is a disgrace. If The Scillonian [which is flat bottomed] can sail through some of the world’s worst waters in a force eight and still arrive on time with all cylinders firing, why can’t Condor operate a halfway efficient ferry service for Guernsey?
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I can’t wait for competition for Condor – flying is clearly expensive (as well as being terrible for the environment), however the price of using Condor is nearly always the same, and when factoring in train travel (in the UK) to the ferry, financially there is no incentive to go by boat. You’d have to pay for a B&B and stay overnight in Weymouth/Poole/Portsmouth if you were to access the “cheap” early/late sailings.
This is a massive reason why many of my generation hardly come back following university – we simply can’t afford to get there. We’d like to see more of our families, perhaps get enticed to take up a Guernsey job, but getting to and from the UK is just too expensive.
Condor’s so-called “offers” are impossible to access due to the inefficacity of their website (if you book via phone there is, naturally, a ridiculous premium slapped on the end) – feels to me they are simply drawing in interest with promises of offers they never actually deliver upon…
How is Guernsey’s tourism industry ever to revive (particularly in this time of “staycations” when we should be rolling in tourists wary of leaving Britain but keen to get “away”) when the cost of travel to the Islands is so very much?
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Totally agree with your comments, Rebecca.
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating then it is the fact that Scillonian tourist accommodation is booked solid until the last week of September while there are vacancy signs all over Guernsey.
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Critics of Condor fail to appreciate that the market is only a certain size and therefore at times the ships run uneconomically. Condor provide a regular round the year service for pasengers which is almost always on time – yes it is slower, but it is reliable.
If people think that flying is expensive now, then they shoudl have been here 30 years ago when the cost was considerably more than it is now. If students cannot afford to come home from uni because of the cost of fares, then their finances need overhauling as well as their lifestyle.
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Coyote. To compare Condor with the Isles of Scilly steamship is totally unfair. First their ship only operates in the spring/summer, in the winter you have to fly.
Secondly it is not up to the operator to decide when they can and can not sail in rough weather, that’s down to the limits put on the vessels by the MCA. If you want a fast craft service, then you have to accept that when the weather is rough you can not plough on at 37 knots
Until yesterday’s fire, the Clipper has operated a reliable service, with one sailing a day in each direction, exactly the same level of service as the Isles of Scilly
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I have been travelling with Condor to and from St Malo as a frequent traveller for six years now and can only praise the Condor’s standard of service. In all that time we have only had one long delay of about five hours due to weather, the rest have been near enough on time. The crew have always been polite and helpful. I agree that a more frequent direct route Guernsey St Malo is something we would all want and something I always go for when booking, but I suspect that the economics of running the company has to do with the via Jersey. Not another regulator, when will the States stop creating all this needless extra Bureaucracy.
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