Condor Ferries Limited, commonly known as Condor, was a Channel Island shipping company based in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. Founded in 1964, it operated a variety of passenger and freight services between France, Guernsey, Jersey and Southern England.
Condor Ferries had several owners during its operational history before being taken over by Brittany Ferries in 2025.
History Condor Ltd was formed in 1964 by Channel Island businessmen Peter Dorey and Jack Norman. Condor was two-thirds owned by Onesimus Dorey & Sons, led by Dorey, with the remaining third largely held by Jack Norman of Commodore Shipping, linking the two companies. The company originally operated services only between the Channel Islands and Saint-Malo, which commenced on 1 May 1964. The formation of the company was in response to the uncertainty in the islands created by the withdrawal from this route of SS Brittany by British Railways in November 1962.
In a 2014 interview with the Guernsey Press, Dorey's son, Rupert, recalled "it was a ballsy, risky thing to do to start the business in the first place in 1964, with no guarantees of success. It was very innovative at the time, but it wasn't even clear whether the local waters would suit the hydrofoil boat, and there were problems to overcome. It made losses for two or three years, but then they rolled the dice, decided to double up the service and buy another boat, it was one huge risk, but it paid off."
The initial series of Condor vessels were all hydrofoil passenger ferries, with the exception of Condor 6 which was a passenger only catamaran.
Peter Dorey was lost at sea in a sailing accident whilst competing in the 1979 Fastnet Race, with his interest passing to his wife, Tattie. Four years later, in July 1983, Commodore Shipping acquired all remaining shares in Condor, which it did not own, with David Norman being appointed managing director. In the same month, Condor carried their four millionth passenger.
The failure of the joint venture between Sealink British Ferries and Channel Island Ferries in September 1986 and the resulting strike provided Condor with an opportunity to introduce an already mooted service between the Channel Islands and Weymouth. As preparations were already under consideration for a service to the Dorset port for the 1987 season, the set up was swift and took advantage of the limited capacity available due to the strikes. During the first 18-day period of operation, 18,000 passengers were carried, proving the viability of the route. Further success on the route saw the announcement of a larger vessel to be introduced in June 1988, although ultimately this was delayed, resulting in a change of tack; Condor announced in 1990 their intention to purchase their first car-carrying vessel from Incat in 1992.
In 1992, the Australian logistics and transport company, TNT, acquired a 50% shareholding in Condor Ferries.Transport companies see divisive market approach Truck & Bus Transportation November 1992 page 19
Expansion Condor established the first high-speed car ferry service to the Channel Islands from Weymouth on 1 April 1993 using the 74m Incat catamaran Condor 10. The original delivery date had been 1992, but the order was delayed by Condor due to technical issues with Condor 9.
The success of the Condor 10 service saw the announcement in January 1994 that, due to their substantial losses the previous season, British Channel Island Ferries (BCIF), which operated conventional ferry services to the Channel Islands from Poole, had been taken over by one of Condor's parent companies, Commodore Shipping. Upon the BCIF takeover, Condor moved all passenger services to Weymouth and the BCIF freight service was transferred to Commodore Shipping. The BCIF vessel Havelet ran a conventional ferry service from Weymouth from 1994, on a three year charter, alongside the Condor 10. Operations of under the BCIF name would cease on 22 January 1994, with around 100 staff being made redundant from that date.
TNT's 50% share in Condor was spun-off just two years after their purchase with the rest of TNT's Shipping and Development Division and floated on the Australian Securities Exchange.TNT to sell most of its shipping Australian Financial Review 23 February 1994Holman float closes oversubscribed Canberra Times 31 March 1994 page 15 to become part of Holyman.
Société Nouvelle d'Armement Transmanche (SNAT), which ran SNCF's shipping division, entered into a pooling agreement in 1994 with Condor Ferries to fill capacity on SNAT's Channiland Ferries services, launched in 1992. Channiland's ship Saint Malo carried the logos of both companies. The pooling agreement and Channiland services came to a swift end after an April 1995 incident when Saint Malo struck a rock known as La Frouquie, 900 metres north of La Corbière. At least 65 of the 307 passengers were injured and the craft was severely damaged. It eventually entered services with Condor themselves as Condor France.
In 1995, private equity firm 3i took a one-third stake in Condor and the company formally adopted the trading name Condor Ferries and a new red and blue livery, and the following year an application to run a high-speed service between Jersey and St Malo was refused by the Jersey Harbours and Airport Committee, leaving Emeraude Lines as the only vehicle ferry operator on that route.
New UK bases, purchase of the Havelet and Condor Vitesse
In March 1997, Condor moved its UK port from Weymouth to Poole. The Condor Express suffered technical problems that led to late-running services. As a result, the Channel Island governments put the licence to operate ferry services to the UK out to tender, announcing this on 15 October 1997.
The Jersey Transport Authority and Guernsey Transport Board advertised for an operator to provide year-round services from 1 January 1999, initially attracting nine expressions of interest. Ultimately, the only three firms to submit proposals were Condor, P&O European Ferries and Hoverspeed. Condor's bid proposed using Condor Express and Condor Vitesse with Condor 9 as a back-up vessel, Hoverspeed proposed a service using SuperSeaCat One, a conventional ferry and if demand required it; a second fast ferry, and P&O proposed a service using Superstar Express and Pride of Bruges on their services. By June of 1998, it had become clear that Guernsey favoured the P&O bid, with Jersey favouring Condor, something which would leave the then deemed impractical situation of the two islands being served by different operations, and in any case, neither bid had been based on this scenario. Eventually, after a meeting between both island authorities, it was resolved to award Condor the tender for a three-year period from the following January. During these negotiations, Holyman's 50% stake in Condor was sold back to Commodore Shipping, giving them, once again, full ownership of Condor Ferries.Agrees to Sell shareholding in Condor Holyman 6 April 1998
One of the conditions of Condor retaining its service agreement was the need to provide a conventional backup vessel from October 1998. Condor was therefore forced to purchase the Havelet in September to act as an all-weather back-up until the delivery of a new conventional vessel in 1999. It also purchased the Condor Vitesse for a new service to St. Malo via Guernsey and made Weymouth its primary UK port, though retaining summer sailings from Poole. The new conventional ferry Commodore Clipper was delivered on 25 September 1999, replacing Havelet, and the Island Commodore of Commodore Ferries. Both Condor and Commodore branding were worn by the ferry. The introduction of Commodore Clipper was the first new-build conventional ferry for Channel Islands services since the Caesarea and Sarnia introduced by British Railways between 1960 and 1961.
Starting in 2001, Condor announced a joint service with Brittany Ferries to run Condor Vitesse on a fast route between Poole and Cherbourg. The Brittany Ferries logo was added to the vessel, and Brittany Ferries marketed her under the name Vitesse.
Re-introduction of Condor 10, management buy-out, rebranding and sale
Condor 10 returned to the fleet in March 2002 to replace the Condor 9 on the Saint-Malo – Channel Island service and would go on to fully compete with the existing fast car ferry service of Emeraude Lines from March 2003.BBC News "Condor to compete on ferry route", retrieved 5 May 2011 Later that year, the Commodore Group, which included Condor Ferries, Commodore Ferries and Commodore Express, was sold to a management buy-out team for a reported £150 million deal, backed by ABN AMRO. This, ironically, saw the cessation of Channel Islands control of the firm, something which had been championed during the 1998 service agreement negotiations. Shortly after, the Condor Ferries logo was redesigned for the start of the 2003 season using the same font as the logo Brittany Ferries had adopted in 2002.
The commencement of Condor car carrying services to France from Jersey had an immediate effect on the incumbent operator, Emeraude Lines, with the decision by the States of Jersey seeing Emeraude in financial difficulties by October 2003. Emeraude would go on to file for protection from bankruptcy in France with debts of €4,000,000, be purchased by the Sogestran Group,Jersey Evening Post "Emeraude takeover approved", retrieved 5 May 2011 and finally collapse in 2005 after a price war with Condor.
In 2004, the Commodore Group operations were rebranded, with Commodore Ferries coming under the Condor Ferries name and Commodore Express becoming Condor Logistics. The group was sold once again in 2004 to the Royal Bank of Scotland's venture capital arm for £240 million.
In August 2005, Condor Express briefly ran on the Poole – Cherbourg service. The Condor Express had been experiencing technical problems, and so the Condor Vitesse was transferred to the more taxing Channel Islands service. Condor Express also operated the Poole-Cherbourg route in 2008.
Acquisition by the Macquarie Group and closure of Condor Logistics In 2008, the Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II acquired the Condor Group.Condor Ferries for sale Ships Monthly June 2018 page 11 The deal was worth a reported €390 million and saw Condor join Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and Wightlink under common ownership of Macquarie.
By 2010 the company had started to cut costs by replacing French and British on-board staff with those from Eastern Europe.
Services from Weymouth were temporarily suspended in February 2012 after large cracks appeared in their berth at the port.
It was announced on 4 October 2012 that Condor Logistics would close its operations with the loss of about 180 jobs (110 in the UK, 50 in Jersey and 20 in Guernsey). The move was blamed on changes to low-value consignment relief affecting the Channel Islands.
In December of 2012, Condor had its operational permit to run Channel Island services extended until 2019. Shortly afterwards, Condor began to seek a suitable replacement for both Condor Express and Condor Vitesse. The reconstruction works to the berth at Weymouth were completed, and Condor returned in July 2013 after a hiatus of 18 months. The reported cost of the temporary switch to Poole was £1 million in extra fuel costs, to cover the extra thirty minutes sailing time.
It was decided by Brittany Ferries in 2013 not to renew the joint Poole-Cherbourg service.
Purchase and introduction of Condor Liberation
By 2014 the firm found that Condor Express and Condor Vitesse were reaching the end of their operational lives, but there was a reluctance to purchase new tonnage without security of service. Thus a protracted process was undertaken to agree a new ten-year operating license to the Channel Islands, which was finally agreed on 31 July 2014, running until 2024.