Coronavirus: 'Reduced Demand' Means Hourly Red Jet Service

Red Funnel has agreed to make changes to its Red Jet timetable, following 'reduced demand' crossings. It follows Wightlink's decision to run 'fewer sailings' due to the 'significant impact' the coronavirus pandemic has had on the firm. From Wednesday (25), the Red Jet will run an hourly service as opposed to its usual half-hourly rotations until further notice. Sailings will depart at XX:45 from Southampton and XX:15 from West Cowes, seven days a week. The first Red Jet sailings will depart at 5.45am from Southampton and 6.15am from West Cowes Monday to Saturday, and 6.45am from Southampton and 7.15am from West Cowes on Sundays. The last Red Jet sailings will depart at 8.45pm from Southampton and 9.15pm from West Cowes daily. Red Funnel will continue to maintain its current timetable on its vehicle ferries for the foreseeable future. The cross-Solent ferry operator also says it will not put on additional sailings as part of its summer timetable. Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel Ferries, said: "As we continue to adapt our operations in response to the COVID-19 situation to ensure a reliable service to and from the island, it is more important than ever that we do our utmost to safeguard our customers, crew and front-line staff on board our ferries, and at our terminals. "Following the government’s advice about non-essential travel, self-isolating and social distancing we are seeing reduced customer demand, and by running fewer services and maintaining staff levels, we have significantly increased vessel and colleague resilience in the interest of doing all that we can to ensure uninterrupted service for critical travel and freight in these unprecedented times. "We hope our customers can appreciate that having the people to physically run our fleet and terminal services is fundamental to maintain the resilience of our operation and, as a result, we have taken the decision to run our Red Jet service against a new temporary timetable while maintaining our current timetable on our vehicle ferry services. This puts us in the best possible position to serve our customers as frequently and reliably as we can throughout this exceptional situation." Customers with season tickets will be contacted and invited to “freeze” their ticket until which time they wish to reactivate it. All customers with forward bookings impacted by the change will be contacted with information about their new sailing time (where applicable). Bookings will be moved to the next nearest crossing time, and Red Funnel is currently busy making these adjustments and politely requests that customers be patient as call volumes are currently high. In line with government advice, Red Funnel is also suspending its food services at all terminals until further notice. Coffee, bottled beverages and pre-packaged food will remain on sale on board, however selection and availability may vary. Red Funnel will also be adding additional sailings to its dedicated freight service via Red Kestrel, in order to provide further space on vehicle ferry sailings, and to ensure the ferry company is doing all that it can to maintain the vital movement of goods and supplies to the Island. Keep up to date with the latest developments as to how Red Funnel is responding to Covid-19 here.