Travellers heading to UK suffer six-hour delay at Port of Calais
P&O Ferries used extra ships for passengers who missed their crossing
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Your support makes all the difference.Ferry companies DFDS and P&O Ferries have apologised to travellers heading to the UK after they endured delays of up to six hours at the Port of Calais.
Holidaymakers were stuck at UK border controls on Saturday, with many missing their crossing.
P&O used extra ships for passengers who missed their sailing, as queues continued into the evening.
Josh Williams, a passenger on one of the ferries, told BBC News he was stuck waiting in Calais for five hours on Saturday to get a ferry back to the UK.
Were you impacted by delays? If so email aisha@rimi@independent.co.uk
He shared pictures of long lines of cars filled with families returning to the UK ahead of the start of the new school year.
DFDS had earlier warned on social media that travellers from Calais could face queues of up to six hours.
The ferry company also said that traffic at ports in Dunkirk, France and Dover in the UK were “free-flowing through check-in and border controls” throughout the day.
At 5.30am on Sunday, DFDS said waiting times at Calais were now around 90 minutes, with all ferries operating on time.
P&O Ferries added additional boats to “help with the passengers that have been stuck at border control”.
On 24 August, passengers in Calais faced similar waits due to extra traffic from Eurotunnel Le Shuttle after passengers had to leave their vehicles and walk through an emergency tunnel when a train broke down.
A spokesman for Le Shuttle said at the time: “The Shuttle was brought to a controlled stop and inspected. As a precautionary measure, for their safety and comfort, we transferred the passengers on board to another shuttle, via the service tunnel [which is there for exactly that purpose].
“We brought them to the passenger terminal building, where food and drinks were available.”
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