Condor's CEO says the new freight and passenger ship, which arrived in St Peter Port this morning (31 July), will drastically improve reliability and traveling experience.
The MV Condor Islander had a slow approach into St Peter Port Harbour this morning as she battled the English Channel's persistent rain and strong winds for the first time.
The multi-million-pound ship was acquired by Condor with financial assistance from the States in April 2023 from New Zealand.
After some engineering work in a Spanish shipyard, she has finally arrived in Guernsey.
Condor Ferries CEO John Napton says today they were extra cautious on the approach just to be safe:
"Unfortunately, today has probably been the worst day in a week, so obviously we're just being hypercautious.
Every port has a different setup, and you want to make sure that you take a sensible approach.
The sea states she will be able to cope with in the future, she had been running inter-island in New Zealand which is pretty rough."
The ship will now run berthing trials in St Helier, St Malo and Cherbourg before going to the UK for a refit.
Brand new overnight cabins, a duty-free shop, a restaurant, and passenger lounges will be installed - as well as Condor's first pet-friendly cabins.
Mr Napton says this extra vessel with modern facilities is an investment for locals:
"It will be of benefit to everyone that lives on the islands because we can guarantee the food and medicine supplies better than ever before.
We’ve effectively got three conventional vessels rather than two so you could argue that our reliability has improved by 50% of purpose is to serve the island, and I believe the additional vessel will be able to do that much better in the future than maybe than what we’ve seen over the last 10 years."
The conventional passenger and freight RoPax vessel will begin taking up to 400 passengers in October this year.
The MV Condor Islander arriving in St Peter Port Harbour for the first time:
Ferry Fact File:
Name: MV Condor Islander
Built: 2005 at Hardinxveld, Holland
Length: 124.9m
Capacity: 400 passengers
Top speed: 18.5 knots
Previous operators: StraitNZ
Current Condor fleet:
The Commodore Clipper, The Commodore Goodwill, The Condor Liberation, The Condor Voyager and The MV Condor Islander.
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