BRITTANY Ferries is reassuring passengers that fares will not soar after rival P&O's decision to axe three South coast routes and cut or transfer 1,550 jobs.

P&O is cutting three routes from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, Caen and Le Havre - opening the way for Brittany which already operates on two of those routes.

Brittany will take over P&O's Portsmouth-Le Havre route - using two ferries that it will charter from P&O (Pride of Portsmouth, Pride of Le Havre).

It hopes to take over by the middle of next year pending approval from the regulators.

And with the axing of P&O's Portsmouth-Cherbourg and Portsmouth-Caen crossings and its takeover of the Le Havre service, Brittany will have a monopoly on those routes.

"I don't like to use that that word (monopoly)," said Brittany Ferries director of corporate communications Stephen Tuckwell.

Prices would not rise dramatically, he said: "The Western Channel represents only 10 per cent of the total traffic across the Channel."

Brittany's Portsmouth routes still faced extensive competition from Dover-Calais (which P&O will continue to operate), Eurotunnel, low cost flights and other ferry operators (such as Condor's Poole-Cherbourg route which competes directly with Brittany), he added.

But Forestdale Hotels sales and marketing director Colin Dennard said: "We are going to get inundated with calls from our customers."

Forestdale has been running package holidays - which include P&O ferry crossings - to its Touring Hotel at St Leonard des Bois near Alenon, northern France for eight years.

Forestdale had been promised sailings on all three P&O routes being axed: "They (P&O) have signed a contract with me for next summer."

Mr Dennard said P&O had made mistakes when billing Forestdale in the past and described the ferry company as "arrogant" - "they increased my winter fares by 175 per cent which does not, in my view, give value for money on ferry crossings on the Western Channel," he said.

P&O said the cuts would mean savings of £55 million a year in the face of fierce competition from the Channel Tunnel.

Eurotunnel's turn-up-and-go service, with passengers not having to worry about rough seas and cancelled crossings, has proved a big attraction.

"Clearly, the Channel Tunnel has had a major impact on our business and has taken a substantial market share," said a P&O spokesman.

FACTFILE: P&O cuts

1,550 jobs affected - 1,200 job cuts plus 350 job transfers;

Four routes axed, including virtually all Western Channel routes - Portsmouth-Cherbourg; Portsmouth-Caen; Portsmouth-Le Havre. Portsmouth-Bilbao will be the only P&O route left in the Western Channel;

Total number of ships to be cut from 31 to 23. Portsmouth-based Western Channel to be cut from six ships to one. Two ferries - Pride of Portsmouth and Pride of Le Havre to be chartered out to Brittany Ferries;

P&O statement: Tourist traffic "adversely affected by fewer day trips and the expansion of the low-cost airlines."

First published: September 29