Post-Covid pet demand keeps Brittany Ferries on its paws

• Captain Bergeroux and Ruben the dog on bridge of Salamanca
• Crew and Ruben the dog in front of Salamanca

Brittany Ferries says that demand for travel with pets has soared since the last pre-Covid year. Last year it carried 108,000 cats and dogs compared with 98,000 in 2019.

Alongside luxury commodore class cabins, pet friendlies are the first to sell-out on many services each year. Brittany Ferries has just opened its books for 2026 holidays, but the company has admitted it is struggling to keep up with demand. That’s despite boosting pet cabin numbers across the fleet.

Since 2019, the number of pet cabins has been boosted from 66 to 162. That’s a 145% increase. It’s all thanks to a combination of converting cabins on long-serving ships and the arrival of new ferries, fitted with more pet cabins.

The configuration includes 50 new pet-friendly cabins for two hybrid vessels that arrived this spring. Guillaume de Normandie and Saint-Malo serve routes from Portsmouth to Caen and St Malo (the destination) respectively, two of the company’s most popular routes.

The ships they replaced had a total of 12 pet-friendlies, meaning most dogs had to be left in cars for the voyage across The Channel. “Now more pooches will be able to travel with their owners in comfort and style – and rightly so, ” said Paul Acheson, sales and marketing director Brittany Ferries.

https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/information/pet-travel/travelling-by-ferry-with-pets

https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/information/pet-travel/travelling-by-ferry-with-pets

Number of pet cabins by ship – green are brand new ships that joined the fleet, red are those retired from the fleet

2019

2024

2025

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