Brittany Ferries has announced that it will expand its range of services from Portsmouth next spring with the launch of a new route to Bilbao.
Travellers will be offered two weekly crossings on Cap Finistere, the company's luxury cruise ferry.
The new service will fill a gap left by
P&O, which announced earlier this year that it would suspend its
ferries from Portsmouth to Bilbao at the end of September.
Brittany Ferries already provides
ferries from Portsmouth to Santander and also sails to northern Spain from Plymouth.
The addition of the Bilbao route means that travellers will be able to choose from five weekly crossings from the UK to Spain with the company.
Group commercial passenger director Mike Bevens said: "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."
He went on to state the Cap Finistere is "the right ship for the job".
LD Lines offers another option for holidaymakers heading to Spain with its new landbridge route, which allows passengers to take
ferries from Portsmouth to Le Havre before driving to Saint-Nazaire and sailing on to Gijon with GLD Atlantique.
Posted by Andrew Smith