P&O Ferries has asked the government for a £150 million bailout after plunging into a cash crisis after demand from passengers all but dried up.
The company that operates on Britain’s key import-export crossing between Dover and Calais runs on a business model, which means its 8.4 million passengers a year subsidise its income from freight lorries.
It says that without passenger income its 40 sailings a day in the Channel and on services across the North Sea and Irish Sea are losing it nearly £250,000 a day.
P&O Ferries accounts for about 15 per cent of Britain’s trade, specialising in the shipment of fresh food and medical supplies from the continent. It carries more than 44,000 units of freight a week, or 2.3 million
