LD Lines cancels Poole to Spain routes

A ferry company is stopping its services from Poole to two ports in Spain, cancelling hundreds of bookings

French firm LD Lines has written to customers saying all trips booked after 7 September to Santander and Gijon had been cancelled.

“Several hundred” affected customers have been booked on rival firm Brittany Ferries, which docks at Portsmouth.

Customer Michael Glover from Salisbury called his cancelled trip home “very frustrating”.

‘Holiday cut short’

He added: “I’ve got to come back earlier than planned and there are cost implications to that.

“I’ve also had no offer of any compensation.”

LD Lines said the weekly services were stopping following a “business review”.

Its rival Brittany Ferries launched an economy service from Portsmouth to Santander in March.

An LD Lines spokesman said: “We had originally sailings available to the end of September but suspended bookings for the period beyond 7 September when we started reviewing the future of the routes.”

He added all passengers have been transferred to alternative services “as close as possible to their LD Lines booking”.

The news comes a day after Condor Ferries said it would run its new service to the Channel Islands from Poole because its previous base at Weymouth could not cope with the high-speed Austal 102 vessels.