Red Funnel cuts crossings over staff shortages

Weekday ferry services to and from Southampton and the Isle of Wight are being cut due to staff shortages.

Red Funnel has revealed 30% of its workforce are currently unavailable due to being 'pinged' by the NHS Covid app.

Bosses have apologised and say they're having to make changes for the next two weeks.

Fran Collins, Chief Executive at Red Funnel, said: "Like many businesses, Red Funnel is being affected by increased colleague absence levels.

"Despite an ongoing strong recruitment effort, around 30% of our operational staff are currently unavailable to work, with many team members being contacted by the NHS Test and Trace system or self-isolating.

"Our service is also busier than usual, with the increase in popularity of staycations.

"I am very sorry that these actions have been necessary and we thank our customers for their continued patience and understanding."

"Lower numbers of staff affects our ability to load and unload our ferries quickly. There is a minimum number of critical roles required to ensure the safety of passengers, and a minimum staff to passenger ratio, meaning if we are unable to fully crew a sailing, we are unable to accept the maximum number of passengers on board.

"As we approach the school holidays, we want to provide our customers with confidence in their bookings, as well as ensure our Island passengers continue to receive a reliable service, despite busier periods.

"Protecting the busy Friday to Monday weekend period is essential to minimise the impact on local traffic, and to ensure we safeguard our passengers’ weekend travel plans to the best of our ability.

"For this reason, we have made the decision to reduce our service for the coming two weeks. This decision will allow colleagues to be redeployed to supplement Friday to Monday services as well as provide more bandwidth for our teams to be able to recruit and train new team members."

The following vehicle sailings on 20, 21, 22 July and the following week, 27, 28, 29 July will be cancelled.

Departures from Southampton (Tues-Thurs):

o 05:00

o 08:00

o 11:00

o 14:00

o 17:00

o 21:00

Departures from East Cowes (Tues-Thurs):

o 06:30

o 09:30

o 12:30

o 15:30

o 18:30

o 22:30

Fran Collins added: "With this change, we highlight that the last opportunity to depart the Island on all the affected days will be 21:00.

On these days, our freight ferry, Red Kestrel remains in service with a change to the schedule, with sailings departing 34 min later, departing Southampton at 04:59, 07:59, 10:59 and East Cowes at 06:29, 09:29, 12:29.

"All customers with bookings on cancelled sailing times will receive an email and/or text notification with their new departure time.

"These notifications will be sent starting in the next few hours, with all messages expected to be delivered within the next 24 hours.

"Email updates will be sent to the email address used to make the affected booking, and those customers who indicted a mobile number at the time of booking will also receive a text message update.

"The majority of customers can expect that their booking will be moved to 1 hour later than their original departure time; however, customers should verify their new departure time by consulting their email and/or text messages.

"Those customers requiring further assistance or who may need to change their revised departure time should call Red Funnel at 023 8001 9192.

"I am very sorry that these actions have been necessary and we thank our customers for their continued patience and understanding as we continue to do the best we can to keep sailing during these challenging times.

"I also extend thanks to our incredible teams who are working very hard to provide more certainty to our customers and minimise the impact on local traffic.

"We will continue to review our schedule regularly and keep customers informed should any further changes be necessary."