P&O Ferries dramatically announced it would temporarily suspend operations yesterday (March 17), causing major disruptions at UK ports and popular routes such as Dover to Calais.
The ferry operator made the move before sacking 800 members of staff by video call, with plans to replace them with cheap agency staff.
As a result the company has suspended a number of operations and cancelled various routes 'for the next few days', although it hasn't confirmed when it expects services to resume.
A statement on the company's Twitter page reads: "P&O Ferries services are unable to run for the next few days. We are advising our customers of alternative arrangements. We will update this feed every 3 hours with the operational situation".
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For the majority of routes including Liverpool-Dublin, Hull-Rotterdam and Cairnryan-Larne, passengers are being advised not to travel unless they have an essential reason, with most services cancelled.
For those travelling from Dover to Calais, the company says in a statement on its website: "If travelling on our Dover/Calais route please arrive at the port as booked and we will arrange to get you away on an alternative carrier as quickly as possible. Once at the port please make your way to the DFDS check-in booths."
If you have a trip booked, your refund rights mean you are entitled to either alternative travel or a refund. If there are delays to your service you may also be entitled to compensation - we've put together a guide explaining your ferry refund rights to help.
It's worth noting that there's been some confusion with some passengers believing their P&O Cruises holiday is cancelled. However, P&O Cruises is part of Carnival Corporation & PLC, and completely unrelated to P&O Ferries, so if you have a P&O Cruises holiday booked it's entirely unaffected by the ferry operator's news.
Alternative ferry operators to P&O Ferries
For passengers who are affected by the P&O Ferries cancellations and suspensions, there are alternative options to get you to your destination if your P&O ferry is cancelled.
For Dover-Calais , P&O Ferries is advising passengers to still travel to the port and head to check-in booths with rival firm DFDS. The latter shared an update on Twitter today confirming that its Dover-France-Dover routes are still operating on schedule.
Routes such as Liverpool-Dublin , Hull-Rotterdam and Cairnryan-Larne are being cancelled today. Although there are no alternatives on these specific routes, there are alternative ferry operators such as Stena Line and Irish Ferries that do offer journeys to some of these destinations.
Irish Ferries also offers Dover-Calais routes, while Brittany Ferries offers a number of routes to France as well as Spain.
