New Portsmouth - Bilbao route for Brittany Ferries

The first new destination for 24 years

Brittany Ferries today announced the expansion of services from Portsmouth to include the Spanish city of Bilbao with 2 crossings a week using its luxury cruise-ferry, Cap Finistère. The new route, commencing next spring, will be in addition to the twice weekly Portsmouth-Santander and weekly Plymouth-Santander services, giving a total of 5 crossings a week between the UK and Spain; 4 from Portsmouth and 1 from Plymouth.

Mike Bevens, Group Commercial Passenger Director, comments: "Our services between Portsmouth and Spain have performed extremely well this year so we are building on this achievement by adding Bilbao to give our customers even greater choice. Bilbao is perfectly situated for getting to South West France as well as the Spanish Costas."

"Despite the Portsmouth-Bilbao route being dropped this month by a competitor, we are confident of making it a success because, with Cap Finistère, we have the right ship for the job. Also, our marvellous French crew provide outstanding service, which results in high levels of repeat business and loyalty amongst our customers. We know from CAA statistics that airline passenger numbers to France and Spain have fallen this year and we attribute this to a general disillusionment with no frills airlines. At the same time, the real benefits of ferry travel, especially on longer routes, such as space to relax, comfort, entertainment, cuisine and, above all value, are being more widely appreciated. This new route marks an important step in the steady progress of Brittany Ferries, as we expand when others are reducing services."

Brittany Ferries is the leading ferry and holiday company on the western Channel, with 5 routes to France and 3 to Spain, plus a wide range of ferry-inclusive self-drive holidays. During 2011 Brittany Ferries will have the capacity to carry 8.3 million passengers across the Channel to France plus another 800,000 to Spain. Book online at www.brittanyferries.com or call 0871 244 1400

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Notes to Editors

• Portsmouth-Bilbao services (Cap Finistère) will depart every Sunday and Friday, returning Tuesday and Saturday with a crossing time of 24 hours (except Sunday which routes via Roscoff).
• Portsmouth-Santander will depart every Tuesday (Pont Aven) and Wednesday (Cap Finistère), returning Monday (Pont Aven) and Thursday (Cap Finistère) with a crossing time of 24 hours.
• Plymouth-Santander will depart Sunday and return Wednesday with a crossing time of 20 hours.
• Brittany Ferries last introduced a new port – Caen – in 1986.

Released 27 September 2010