Brittany Ferries signed a letter of intent with the Flensburger Schiffbau shipyard in Germany to construct a new LNG-fueled ship.
A final contract for the 1,680 passenger and 257 cabin vessel is expected to be signed in spring 2017, following which construction will start, the French company said in its statement on Wednesday.
Christophe Mathieu , CEO, Brittany Ferries said, “the signing of this letter of intent with the Flensburger shipyard is a concrete step towards the construction of a new generation of Brittany Ferries ships.”
The new ship is expected to launch in 2019 on the Portsmouth-Caen route, and will be deployed in tandem with cruise ferry, Mont St Michael.
The company is looking to reduce the environmental impact of its operations by using LNG as fuel and the adoption of new technologies. The LOI follows the completion of a £65 million (Approx. US$80.5 million) investment in emission-reducing scrubber systems which have been retrospectively fitted to six cruise ferries in the company’s ten-ship fleet, the statement reads.
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