What should I do if travelling at a later date? 

If you plan to secure tickets with another operator in advance, here are the alternative companies on the following routes:

Dover-Calais

DFDS (dfds.com); Irish Ferries (irishferries.com). 

Liverpool-Dublin

No direct alternatives. Irish Ferries and Stena Line (stenaline.co.uk) offer services from Holyhead (Wales) to Dublin. 

Hull-Rotterdam

No direct alternatives, but Stena Line runs a Harwich-Hook of Holland service and DFDS runs ferries from Newcastle to Amsterdam. 

Cairnryan-Larne

This route is only offered by P&O Ferries, but alternatives include Cairnryan-Belfast (Stena Line).

Can I cancel and get a refund?

P&O Ferries has yet to issue details on refunds for those affected by its cancelled services. 

However, in the section “delays or cancelled sailing” in its terms and conditions, it specifies: 

“We will refund the Total P&O Ferries Fare of the affected inbound and/or outbound crossing if we cannot ship you at all with us or arrange a suitable alternative ferry crossing, or if you do not wish to take any alternative journey offered by us. If your departure is delayed and your journey will no longer serve any purpose, having regard to your original travel plan, a refund of the full ticket price shall be considered upon submission of reasonable supporting evidence.”

Adam French, consumer rights expert at the Which?, said: “If your ferry service is cancelled or departure is delayed for more than 90 minutes, you should be offered the choice between an alternative sailing at the earliest opportunity at no additional cost and reimbursement of the ticket price within seven days.”

A statement from P&O Ferries said “in making this tough decision” it was ensuring it could continue “serving our customers in a way that they have demanded from us for many years.” See the statement in full on the business live blog.