(Bloomberg) -- British holidaymakers are rushing to book trips to France and Spain, with one ferry operator attributing the trend to the U.K. delaying its split from the European Union until October.
Reservations with Brittany Ferries jumped 25% in the first two weeks of July compared with last year. That's a rebound from a 10% decline in the first quarter and a 2% drop in the three months through June.
“We've seen a steady return to the market since March 29, but in the last two weeks 15,000 more passengers have made reservations compared to last year,” said Nigel Wonnacott, a spokesman for Brittany Ferries. “We think there was a lot of late demand in the market.”
News of the jump in cross-Channel travel comes a day after EasyJet Plc, Britain's biggest low-cost airline, reported a surge in bookings for the three months through June. The carrier put the upturn down to a generally cooler summer in the U.K. and northern Europe compared with 2019's prolonged heatwave, which saw millions holiday at home.
Brittany Ferries was one of three roll-on roll-off specialists that won a U.K. government contract worth 46.6 million pounds ($59 million) to carry about 4,000 extra trucks a week as part of contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit. The contracts were scrapped in May at a cost of about 50 million pounds to the U.K. taxpayer.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Foy in London at sfoy8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Christopher Jasper, Elisabeth Behrmann
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