The leading ferry firm between Dover and Calais, P&O Ferries, has suspended all its sailings ahead of “a major company announcement”.

In a message to staff seen by The Independent, P&O Ferries said: “We will be making a major company announcement today which, with the support of our shareholder DP World, will secure the long-term viability of P&O Ferries.

“To facilitate this announcement all our vessels have been asked to discharge their passengers and cargo and standby for further instructions.

“That means we're expecting all our ports to experience serious disruption today so please bear with us and we will give further information in an all-colleague announcement later today.

“If you're in a customer-facing role further information with follow separately on how we would like you to work with our customers. Thank you for your patience and support.”

The company told passengers via its Twitter feed that it is “unable to run for the next few hours”.

Shortly afterwards, the Hull MP Karl Turner tweeted: “POferries have apparently instructed their crews both ratings and officers to tie up vessels as they are making a ‘major’ announcement today.

“This is troubling for crews and their families. I am in contact with ratings and officer unions regarding this.”

Rumours in the industry suggest that the ferry line, which is owned by the Dubai-based company DP World, may be making large-scale redundancies and replacing crew with seafarers recruited from abroad.

A spokesperson for the company told The Independent: “P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation. We have asked all ships to come alongside, in preparation for a company announcement.

“Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements.”

Travellers are being told: “Port Teams will guide you and travel will be arranged via an alternative operator.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this will have on your journey plans.”

Motorists and truck drivers hoping to sail between Dover and Calais are expected to be directed to rival ferry firms, DFDS and Irish Ferries, or the Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel.

One passenger, Beckie McLauchlan, tweeted: “But who is going to let us know and when please? We were meant to be on the 6:30 ferry, sat here since 5:30 and not one person has explained anything?”

She was told: “You will be sailing with DFDS. My colleague will be coming over soon. Please hang tight. I’m very sorry about this.”

P&O Ferries also sails between Cairnryan in Scotland and Larne in Northern Ireland; between Liverpool and Dublin; and between Hull and Rotterdam.

While P&O Ferries customers on Irish Sea routes are being directed to Stena Line, the latter says it has no arrangements in place for carrying passengers and trucks.

A spokesperson said: “Stena Line will do what we can to assist passengers and freight that are re-routed via our services, however, we are afraid that we have not received any contact from P&O and do not yet have any agreement in place with them to accept their bookings.

“All our services are running as normal from Belfast. However, we expect our sailings to be busier than normal.

“We would like to remind passengers that if they cannot book space on our Belfast sailings that we also have services running from Dublin and Rosslare.”

Passengers will need to buy a fresh ticket and seek a refund for the P&O Ferries fare.

P&O Ferries has no corporate relationship with P&O Cruises, which is operating normally.

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