08 February 2018
The States’ of Jersey and Guernsey have identified Manche Iles-Express as the preferred bidder to provide an enhanced inter-island passenger-only ferry service.
No formal award has been made yet and discussions with Manche Illes-Express are continuing with both Islands, but the objective remains to have an enhanced service in operation by 1 May 2018.
While those discussions are ongoing no further detail is available, however, the proposal would not require financial support or underwriting from either Island.
The inter-island ferry tendering process closed on 18 January 2018 with two formal tenders submitted. There were nine expressions of interests, and two formal tender submissions. The submission received by the preferred bidder did not fully meet the scheduling requirements set out in the Invitation to Tender (ITT), but does represent about 25,000 extra seats.
Senator Lyndon Farnham, Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture in Jersey, said “Improving the connectivity between the Islands remains our focus and the proposal under consideration is a clear improvement on the options available in 2017. There is still some work to be done to secure maximum opportunities for both islands and my department looks forward to working with Manche Iles-Express to achieve this.”
Deputy Charles Parkinson, President of the Committee for Economic Development in Guernsey, said: “The tender process has given a good opportunity to improve inter-Island connectivity for the summer with an additional 25,000 seats. We will be working hard with the preferred supplier to maximise this opportunity if at all possible – which includes the feasibility of providing additional services to Alderney.”
A pan-island tender review panel was convened to formally score the tender submissions against the Invitation to Tender document. The panel included officers from Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney.
Both companies that formally tendered were informed of the outcome on 2 February and the recommendation of the tender review panel has been formally endorsed by the Committee for Economic Development in Guernsey and by the Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture in Jersey.
gov.je