Jobs threatened at LD Lines as ships go on the market
Ferry Online Travel News 12/08/2010
Staff at struggling LD Lines could lose their jobs.
Employees at ferry operator LD Lines could lose their jobs as the firm continues to struggle to stay afloat in the increasingly choppy waters of the cross-channel ferry industry. Christophe Santoni, Managing Director of LD Lines, announced his warning to staff. The warning comes as news emerges that the company has been forced to put the vessels it uses between Dover and Boulogne on the market.
The ferries, the Norman Trader and the Norman Bridge, normally ply a busy route serving the Port of Dover and Boulogne, in France. A variety of factors has hit volumes in the cross-channel business. Into this depressed market, competitors including Eurotunnel have embarked on a serious price war.
Eurotunnel has kicked off an aggressive pricing policy aimed at recovering market share it lost following a tunnel fire in 2008. In response, ferry operators have been left with no option but to also slash their prices.
Mr Santoni spoke to The Express from France. He said that the company had not yet made any definite decision on how it would proceed with services out of Dover but he did not mince his words when describing the seriousness of the situation and was clear that the future may well include job losses at the company.
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