{"id":8284,"date":"2026-02-10T17:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/8284\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:21:21","slug":"hopes-for-improved-saint-malo-day-trips-hang-in-the-balance-as-dfds-wrangles-with-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/8284\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopes for improved Saint Malo day trips hang in the balance as DFDS wrangles with authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

DFDS has signalled improvements to French day trips next year \u2013 but negotiations over Saint Malo\u2019s single available berth remain a sticking point.<\/p>\n

The Danish shipping firm\u2019s route director for Jersey, Chris Parker, provided the update during a hearing with the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel\u00a0this morning.<\/p>\n

The Panel has started a review of Jersey\u2019s ferry contract, which includes exploring some of the initial issues that have been raised since the Government awarded the agreement to DFDS at the end of last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the hearing, Panel chair Deputy Montfort Tadier mentioned public criticism around arrival and departure times for day trips to France.<\/p>\n

The schedule that we have put forward does give longer in general in France<\/p>\n

DFDS route director for Jersey Chris Parker<\/p>\n

Mr Parker said: \u201cTo a degree, we were constrained by access to berths and particular departure times, which didn\u2019t help when it comes to setting up a schedule which gave sufficient time to have a day trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe have worked on that schedule through the year with ports and with the vessels, with an aim to try to stretch that \u2013 the length that we are in St Malo \u2013 for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Pictured: DFDS fast ferry Tarifa Jet.<\/p>\n

He also noted that DFDS had issued a calendar highlighting the days where day trips were possible this year, and would be doing this again for 2026.<\/p>\n

Last year saw the approval of a major project to modernise Saint Malo\u2019s ageing ferry terminal <\/a>and improve the harbour area, which was deemed \u201cessential\u201d for the future of the port by the mayor, Gilles Lurton.<\/p>\n

But the work has temporarily meant only one berth is available \u2013 something DFDS has previously said it was aware of and was \u201cworking on plans to ensure schedules align with other providers and the ports\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Parker described the situation as a \u201ccomplex equation\u201d and said the ferry operator was still \u201cin discussion\u201d with the French port \u201caround deconfliction of that single birth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pictured: DFDS route director for Jersey, Chris Parker<\/p>\n

\u201cThe schedule that we have put forward does give longer in general in France, but we need to get that deconflicted,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Deputy Tadier also raised questions over whether Brittany Ferries would be given \u201cpreference\u201d on the French berth, as \u201cone of their own national companies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Parker said: \u201cAny port is a commercial enterprise and it\u2019s fair to say that there is an understanding within the region as well that Jersey is still two-thirds of the traffic from the Channel Islands, coming through St Malo, either from Jersey or going to Jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a significant source of income and significant source of tourism for St Malo in particular, so there is a recognition of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end it comes back to, the ports are the ultimate authority \u2013 they will make the decision, they are making that decision, with a view to both the best public good and best commercial result. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t feel that we are somehow treated any differently to any other operator.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DFDS has signalled improvements to French day trips next year \u2013 but negotiations over Saint Malo\u2019s single available…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6052],"tags":[6801,6057,6802],"class_list":{"0":"post-8284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dfds","8":"tag-chris-parker","9":"tag-dfds","10":"tag-st-malo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}