Brittany Ferries on December 21 signed a letter of intent with German shipyard Flensburger Schiffbau for a new ship powered by LNG, reversing its past rejection of the fuel as a bunker fuel.

It will be one of the cleanest ships to operate in UK waters, the French-owned ferry operator said. CEO Christophe Mathieu said: "Despite Brexit, we remain confident in our ability to continue to grow and modernise our route network, serving both tourism and trade in the regions of western Europe."

This announcement follows Brittany Ferries' completion of a £65mn investment in emission-reducing 'scrubber' systems, retrospectively fitted to six cruise ferries in the company's ten-ship fleet. The company had decided in October 2014 against placing an order for a newbuild LNG ferry that it had long been mulling, opting instead for the investment in scrubbers to remove sulphur from exhaust gas.

Since then, the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) decided that from January 1 2020 all fuels burned by ships must have a maximum of 0.5% sulphur content – a decision that is expected to spur greater availability of LNG as a marine fuel. Those operating in northern Europe (but not Spain) have since 2015 been required to operate to an even tougher 0.1% sulphur cap and will continue to do so.

Routes served by Brittany Ferries (Map credit: the company)

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. It did not indicate how much the ship would cost.

It is expected to launch in 2019 on the Portsmouth­-Caen route which offers three daily return sailings, and will operate in tandem with popular cruise ferry, Mont St Michel, launched in 2002. More than four in five people travelling on the French company's ships are British and more than 2.4mn passengers were carried in 2016.

Mark Smedley