P&O Ferries

In January 2019, P&O Ferries announced that its UK fleet would be reflagged from Dover, UK to Limassol, Cyprus in response to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union in 2019 "For operational and accounting reasons". Cyprus is a member of the EU and a flag of convenience, with the reflagging allowing P&O to continue to benefit from EU tax arrangements. According to the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, the reflagging was "pure opportunism", saying that the firm's "long-term aim has always been to switch the UK fleet to a tax haven register".

On 20 February 2019, DP World announced it had repurchased P&O Ferries from Dubai World in a £322 million deal.

2022 staff sacking

On 17 March 2022, P&O abruptly suspended its operations, cancelling all sailings and offloading passengers and cargo. Eight hundred UK staff were told in a video call that their employment was "terminated with immediate effect due to redundancy", and that their work would in future be undertaken by staff contracted to a third-party supplier. Staff on some ferries refused to leave their vessels. A spokesman for the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said that there had been no consultation with the staff or trade unions. The chair of the Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman MP, criticised P&O. In the light of this action by P&O Ferries, the UK government stated it would review its contracts with the company. This resulted in calls to boycott P&O Ferries including by members of the public, businesses in the travel trade and politicians.

The method of the expulsion, overseen by ex-military security guards, was criticised by several government and business leaders. Mark Russell, a non-executive director of DP World, resigned afterwards in disagreement with the way in which the restructuring was carried out. P&O Ferries had seen losses during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as deficits in its pension fund. Industry sources also cited its high overheads and competition from Irish Ferries as potential contributory factors. Verity Slater, partner and expert in maritime employment law at Stephens Scown, said that P&O may not have to follow UK employment laws, since some of its ships are not registered in Britain.

On 24 March 2022, P&O Ferries CEO Peter Hebblethwaite confirmed before the Transport Select Committee of MPs that the management of the company acted unlawfully when it fired the crew members without consultation. Grant Shapps said that P&O Ferries should change the names of Spirit of Britain, Pride of Hull, Pride of Kent and Pride of Canterbury to remove all British references, were it found that P&O had broken the law. Shapps confirmed that the ships concerned would only be able to operate following full training and subsequent inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

In March 2022, Shapps wrote to Hebblethwaite to give him "one final opportunity" to reinstate the 800 workers. Hebblethwaite declined to do so and confirmed his intention to remain in the CEO post despite two of the company's ships being impounded on safety grounds.

The controversy also caused P&O Cruises, another company originally owned by P&O but which was divested in 2000 and acquired by Carnival Corporation & plc in 2003, to suffer public backlash and to embark on an advertising campaign to clarify their separate ownership from P&O Ferries.

On 25 April 2022, it was reported that P&O Ferries was forced to reverse its attempt at pay cuts for the new workers. National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, also known as RMT Union, received reports of seafarers being asked to sign new contracts with reduced payment. The union reported the company to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which made sure that the wages were not reduced. In November 2024, The Guardian reported that P&O Ferries' actions in 2022 cost the business £47 million.

Other brands

Over the years P&O Ferries operated various subsidiary ferry companies, each with their own distinctive name, these included:

Pandoro Ltd and Ferrymasters Ltd

P&O Irish Sea

P&O European Ferries

P&O Portsmouth

P&O North Sea Ferries

P&O Stena Line (joint venture).

P&O Portsmouth was formed in 1999 when P&O European Ferries Portsmouth Operations were named after the merger of the Dover Operations with Stena Line to make P&O Stena Line, when in 2002 P&O bought Stena's 20% share in P&O Stena Line so the North Sea Operations and the Portsmouth operations were merged with the Dover Operations to make P&O Ferries.

In August 2002, P&O acquired Stena Line's 40% share of P&OSL, which were re-merged with the Portsmouth and North Sea operations under the P&O Ferries brand. In December 2002, the Dover–Zeebrugge route closed, leaving only the Dover–Calais route remaining. Vessel prefixes were again changed to PO before they were repainted into a new livery and then resuming the use of the Pride of prefix in 2003.

On 8 August 2008, P&O Ferries announced it had placed a €360 million order with STX Europe for two new ships to replace the ageing Pride of Dover and Pride of Calais. The two new vessels, Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France, are 49,000 gross tons and 210 metres long, making them the largest ferries to operate in the English Channel. They were the first passenger ferries in the world to comply with the new SOLAS "Safe Return to Port" requirements.

Spirit of Britain entered service on 21 January 2011 replacing Pride of Dover, which remained in layup in Tilbury before being sold and scrapped in late 2012. Spirit of France entered service on 9 February 2012. Pride of Calais remained in service primarily as a freight ferry to cope with demand following the collapse of SeaFrance, before being withdrawn on 20 October 2012 and subsequently chartered to TransEuropa Ferries although this charter was somewhat short lived and Pride of Calais subsequently followed her sister, Pride of Dover, to the scrapyard and she was beached in Turkey in late 2013

New hybrid ships with 8.8 MWh battery and 4 7.5 MW motors are planned to enter service (EIS) on the Dover-Calais route by 2023. These ships will be the first double-ended ferries to operate the Dover-Calais service. They will be the world's largest double-ended ferries, with a length of 230 metres, even larger than the Spirit-class ships. On 21 December 2020, it was announced that the keels for the first three ships in the new class were laid, with the following delivery dates scheduled for the first two: 23 September 2022 and 23 March 2023. On 2 January 2022, the first ship of the class was launched and a few days later, the names of the two new ships were announced as P&O Pioneer and P&O Liberté.

Portsmouth

In summer 2004 P&O Ferries operated a Portsmouth–Caen route using the Incat 91 model catamaran Max Mols from Mols-Linien, trading under the name Caen Express. However, this was short lived, with P&O Ferries announcing on 28 September 2004 its planned closure of the Portsmouth–Cherbourg and Caen routes and the transfer of the Portsmouth–Le Havre route to Brittany Ferries due to falling passenger numbers and rising costs. Caen Express was returned to Mols-Linien in October 2004, and the Portsmouth–Cherbourg route closed on 14 January 2005. Following the intervention of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, Brittany Ferries backed out of the deal to take over the Le Havre route, so Portsmouth–Le Havre remained under P&O Ferries until its closure on 30 September 2005.

The Bilbao route remained as the only Portsmouth operation, until on 15 January 2010, P&O Ferries announced they would withdraw the service at the end of Pride of Bilbao's charter. The vessel completed her final voyage on 28 September 2010 and was returned to Irish Continental Group, from whom she had been chartered since the route's inception.

North Sea

P&O's involvement in the North Sea ferry routes began with a 35% stake in North Sea Ferries owned by its subsidiary General Steam Navigation Company. North Sea Ferries had begun operations on 17 December 1965 sailing on the Hull–Rotterdam route, a route which critics predicted would not survive. The numbers proved them wrong, however, and in the first year, 54,000 passengers were carried. By 1974, demand for capacity was greater than could be supplied, and two vastly bigger vessels, Norland and Norstar, which were at that time the largest ferries in the world, were introduced to the route.

The two vessels Norwind and Norwave were transferred to a new route, Hull–Zeebrugge, operating a nightly service departing 30 minutes after the Rotterdam service sailed. The two routes remained unchanged, with the exception of the Ministry of Defence chartering Norland for service with the British Task Force to the Falkland Islands in 1982. The two routes were becoming increasingly popular, and in 1987 the larger Norsun and Norsea were introduced on the Hull–Rotterdam route, the two displaced vessels moving to Hull–Zeebrugge and the sale of both Norwind and Norwave.

As part of the success of the routes, dedicated freight routes were introduced from Teesport to both Rotterdam and Zeebrugge on a nightly basis. However, the ships quickly began to struggle to cope with demand, and in 1994 new superfreighters were introduced on the Hull routes. A new river berth was therefore constructed to accommodate the freight only vessels, however they were still small enough to pass through the lock at King George Dock if required.

By 1996 P&O owned a 50% stake in North Sea Ferries, the other 50% owned by Royal Nedlloyd Group. In a multimillion-pound deal, P&O purchased Royal Nedlloyd Group's stake, and North Sea Ferries was rebranded to P&O North Sea Ferries. Continuing success saw the purchase of two new superferries weighing 60,000 tonnes from Fincantieri, entering service in 2001 as Pride of Rotterdam and Pride of Hull and once again holding the title of 'world's largest ferry'. Norsea and Norsun were refitted and returned to P&O North Sea Ferries on the Hull–Zeebrugge route as Pride of York and Pride of Bruges.

Following P&O's acquisition of P&O Stena Line in 2002, P&O North Sea Ferries was merged and rebranded with P&O's Portsmouth and Dover operations under the current P&O Ferries Ltd name.

P&O Ferries host many themed minicruises on the Hull to Rotterdam route. These include the now traditional 'Hulloween' minicruise on 28 October and music minicruises with 50s and 60s music.

Irish Sea

In 1971 P&O purchased the remains of Coast Lines which had been operating in the Irish Sea since 1913. In December 1974, P&O founded Pandoro Ltd to provide transport operations to Ireland. A number of different routes were started and ceased operating as the 'Troubles' affected the car/passenger market to Northern Ireland.

In 1993 Pandoro added a service operating between Rosslare, Ireland, and Cherbourg, France, to its Ardrossan–Larne, Liverpool–Dublin and Fleetwood–Dublin routes.

P&O Irish Sea was formed in 1998, following the merger of the Cairnryan-based service of P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe) Ltd and Pandoro Ltd (who operated routes between England, Scotland and France to Ireland). The following year (1999), the new P&O Irish Sea announced its intentions to purchase a purpose-built Ro-Pax (roll-on, roll-off, vehicle/passenger) vessel from Mitsubishi of Japan for the Liverpool to Dublin route. This would see the transfer of European Leader (ex Buffalo) back to the Fleetwood route.

In January 2016, it was announced that the seasonal Troon to Larne service would cease with immediate effect due to the unprofitability of the route. The service had ended for the 2015 season in September of that year.