[Pompeyfan]

A new ferry service is to come to Portsmouth to take on P&O after a major deal was struck with a Spanish firm.

Acciona Trasmeditterranea has a signed a contract with city council chiefs to run from Portsmouth to Bilbao from the ferry port.

The service will be in direct competiton with the existing P&O service to the Spanish port.

Acciona's combined freight and passenger ferry, called Fortuny, will take 1,000 passengers compared to 2,500 on the P&O vessel, but is a more modern ship.

The service will run from May 16th going across twice a week off-peak and three times a week during the high season.

P&O is locked into the Bilbao route until 2008, but after that it will have to decide whether to continue. P&O, which has been taken over by DP World, insisted it welcomed the competition and believed the introduction of another operator would allow the market to grow.

So once we have had our SN trip on Pride of Bilbao in September, perhaps we can try another ship?!. David

[hawkey01]

Afternoon, that sounds interesting. I travel to Spain a lot via Britanny ferries, in fact heading down on Pont Aven in June. If the new service is cheaper it would be just great. What sort of tonnage is this new ship?
Hawkey01

[david smith]

Look at the following link - looks a nice ship.

http://www.faktaomfartyg.com/fortuny_2001.htm

[Pompeyfan]

Thanks for the David. She is smaller than Pride of Bilbao, but looks nice. I will go on her all being well, so can compare the two both price wise and the ship itself. I have considered going on Pont Aven Hawkey01, so would be interested to know what she is like when you go on her in June. I wanted to go on her when she did the St Malo route for a while, but never got round to it. Hopefully, the Bilbao route will become cheaper with competition. David

[hawkey01]

Thank you David, now lets hope they are more competitively priced than
Brit: ferries or P&O.
Hawkey01

[HarbourCam]

Video of P&O Pride of Bilbao entering Portsmouth Harbour:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaJoI2pj2U