Ferry company has record passenger numbers

Ferry company has record passenger numbers after airplane terror alerts

SeaFrance had the best week of business in the company's history - thanks to the terror alerts that caused chaos at airports.

Last week more than 26,000 cars were carried onboard the SeaFrance's Dover-Calais fleet - breaking the previous record of 25,750 set back in 2004.

SeaFrance carried 10 per cent more cars and 11 per cent more passengers last week than in the same seven days a year ago.

While airports were still struggling with huge queues and cancelled flights at the weekend, the ferry company said cars and passengers were up 13 per cent and 17 per cent respectively on Thursday, Friday and Saturday meaning that most crossings were running at near to full capacity.

SeaFrance sales director Bill Laidlaw: "We were already experiencing strong bookings this summer, but there is no doubt that the events of last week have had a knock on effect for us.

"We also experienced an unprecedented number of customers just turning up at the port to buy a ticket.

"We know from our research that several customers abandoned the airport, went home, got in their cars and drove down to Dover where they were able to purchase a cross Channel ticket."

SeaFrance, which is 10 years old, operates 30 daily crossings on the Dover-Calais route.

There are currently no special offers available.