British Channel Island Ferries
 |
|
| Industry | Passenger transportation Freight transportation |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by Commodore Shipping 1994 |
| Successor | Condor Ferries |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Weymouth, United Kingdom |
|
Area served
|
Channel Islands |
British Channel Island Ferries (BCIF) was a ferry operator who ran services between the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands.
The company was founded in late 1984 as Channel Island Ferries by a consortium made up of Brittany Ferries, Huelin Renouf and Mainland Market Deliveries (MMD) to compete with Sealink British Ferries services to Portsmouth and Weymouth. Channel Island Ferries established their service from Portsmouth to the Channel Islands late in March 1985 using the ferry Corbière, previously the Benodet of Brittany Ferries. Sealink British Ferries had made a number of unpopular changes to its services and fare structure for the 1985 season which resulted in Channel Island Ferries gaining 85% of the passenger market from Portsmouth, this later dropped to 55% in 1986 after Sealink reorganised their fares and sailings to combat Channel Island Ferries following massive losses. The company had made such an impact on the Channel Island market that Sealink entered into talks to merge the two companies operations to save money and reduce over-capacity. The joint venture was announced on 30 September 1986. The plans was for the new company to be known as British Channel Island Ferries and operate the Corbiere and Sealink's Earl Granville from Portsmouth and maintain a summer only service from Weymouth using another Sealink vessel. The announcement resulted in almost immediate strike action by the crews of the four Sealink vessels which included the blockade of Guernsey’s only linkspan by the Earl William forcing Channel Island Ferries to suspend service to the island for five days, the service resumed after Earl William sailed to Weymouth to join the other Sealink ships on strike. Sealink were unable to reach an agreement with their crew to join the new service which meant Sealink were not able to fulfil its agreement to provide the Earl Granville and another ship for the new service. Channel Island Ferries later took out a series of high court injunctions against Sealink which allowed Channel Island Ferries to trade as British Channel Island Ferries and prevented Sealink for offering a service to the Islands for twelve months
With only one ship the company required two additional vessels to run a full service to the Channel Islands. They chartered the Brittany Ferries freight ferry Briezh-Izel to run alongside the Corbière from Portsmouth and the Portelet to run a new service from Weymouth which was to last until 1 October 1988. The service from Portsmouth was maintained until the end of 1988 when BCIF moved to Poole which allowed the company to reduce crossing times to the Islands by up to two hours. Corbière was replaced by the Rozel on the new service in February 1989. The Rozel was the largest ship ever used on the Channel Island service and became a popular addition to the fleet. The Briezh-Izel was initially replaced by the Corbière running freight only until the arrival of the Havelet, formerly the Cornouailles, from Brittany Ferries' Truckline service. The Corbière then left the fleet for further service with Brittany Ferries on their Truckline passenger service between Poole and Cherbourg. The move to Poole and the introduction of the Rozel was a successful one for the company but growth in the freight market from the port was slow, this led to the establishment of a rival service from Portsmouth by Commodore Shipping and MMD. BCIF was also facing growing competition from air travel and Condor Ferries passenger-only services from Weymouth.
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