Award-winning ferry operator, DFDS Seaways, has confirmed that it will be adding Stena Nordica to its Dover-Calais service.

The new ship will bring DFDS Seaways’ Dover-France fleet back up to five ships and will replace Dieppe Seaways, which was returned to its owner at the end of November.

The ferry will need to go into dry dock for a refit and rebrand before it can join Calais Seaways on the Dover-Calais service, but she is expected to be ready for business in the next couple of months.

The latest addition to the DFDS Seaways passenger and freight fleet of ferries is around 170m long with capacity for around 400 passengers and 2,000 lane metres of high vehicle capacity.

Max Foster, passenger director at DFDS Seaways, commented: “We’ve been looking for a suitable fifth ship on our Dover-France routes to bring our Calais service back up to two vessels.

“The introduction of the Nordica, coupled with an engine upgrade on Calais Seaways, will help us restore a reliable daily service of up to 20 sailings between Dover and Calais, which is good news for our coach customers, especially for those planning to travel to mainland Europe over the Easter period.

“When you factor in our Dunkirk service, this will again take us up to 44 daily sailings between Dover and France.”

The imminent arrival of Stena Nordica follows the recent Competition Appeal Tribunal’s ruling on the SCOP/Eurotunnel case on January 9th, which was welcomed by DFDS Seaways.

“Securing this new ship underlines our commitment to this service and is an important first step in our longer term plans to develop this route going forward,” concluded Foster.