Vacation trouble for Swiss family Corsica Ferries annoy travelers with frequent cancellations

For years, customers of the ferry company Corsica Ferries have been complaining about cancellations at short notice. The summer of 2025 was particularly wild and disrupted the travel plans of many.

The message arrives less than three days before departure and blue News reader M. M. initially thinks it is a phishing attack: the booked crossing with Corsica Ferries from Livorno in Italy to Bastia on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica will not take place, it says. When the ferry agency later informs him that the family will have to choose another connection, it dawns on him that the cancellation is a fact.

As an alternative, the ferry company with the yellow boats offers a connection the following morning - instead of in the afternoon, as planned. Because the M. family is traveling by train, they cannot travel overnight to the Tuscan coast, but have to book accommodation in Livorno in order to board the ferry at 8 a.m. on the new departure day. The first night in Corsica, however, they paid for free.

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"It can happen", they say to themselves, the last few trips by train in Italy, France and even to northern Germany were practically free of transportation problems, they tell blue News.

Two of two booked crossings canceled

M. becomes suspicious two weeks later, as the vacation draws to a close. Just three days before departure, the ferry company itself and the booking agency announced that the return trip from Corsica to Italy had been canceled. Once again due to unspecified technical problems. "The man on the hotline said, audibly annoyed, that it was a problem with the engine when I asked," he describes, "I had the impression that he didn't know any more than I did."

He and his family wanted to experience the return journey on an overnight ferry. Now they have to leave Bastia the afternoon before. In Savona on the Ligurian coast, they have to book an overnight stay at short notice, as there are no more trains to Switzerland at 11 pm.

The M.'s in Bastia were told by a German family who had been spending their summer vacation in Corsica for years and who told them that these last-minute cancellations had become the norm in summer.

This coincides with comments on social media, for example in the Facebook group "Clients Corsica Ferries en colère" (angry Corsica Ferries customers) with 23,500 members, where there are pages and pages of reports about other canceled connections, like the two that the M. family experienced. There are also repeated statements that things have not always been this bad.

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Problems for years

2025 Corsica Ferries has another acute problem: the "Mega Express 5" has been in the port of Genoa for repairs since mid-July.

The ship has been out of service for three weeks, explains a representative of Corsica Ferries blue News. This has led to 40 cancellations. In fact, the complaints in the Facebook group increased noticeably between mid-July and mid-August. However, they also report postponed and canceled crossings before and after this period.

The newspaper "Le Parisien" and other French media reported on a series of canceled ferry connections by Corsica Ferries back in 2021. At the time, a representative of the company cited the delayed effects of the coronavirus measures as the cause of the many problems.

Jean, as the Corsica Ferries communications employee calls himself, emphasizes: "These decisions are never taken lightly, but always in the interest of safety and the smooth running of operations." In 2024, the company transported 3.5 million passengers on 6100 crossings. This proves the stability and reliability of the service.

Rebookings cause follow-up costs

Angry Corsica Ferries customers on Facebook and users in the German-language Corsica forum see things differently. But the competition - Corsica Linea, Moby, La Méridionale - are more expensive. Apparently, many people prefer to take the bet that they will get to Corsica at no extra cost, even if perhaps not exactly then and on the route they originally booked.

If Corsica Ferries cancels a connection, it offers passengers who have a reservation on that route another connection to which they can rebook at no extra cost. The M. family was also able to cancel the cabin they didn't need because they weren't traveling overnight. In addition, Corsica Ferries gives out consumption vouchers for the on-board catering - 15 euros on the outward journey and 35 euros on the return journey, M. told blue News.

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However, the additional costs remain with the customers. Be it additional nights in a hotel because the alternative connection would otherwise not be possible or additional car kilometers.

"Le Parisien" refers to an EU regulation according to which ferry companies have to pay compensation of 80 euros per person in such cases. It is doubtful that many people are aware of this article, let alone know how they can claim this compensation. M. M. and his wife knew nothing about it either.

Does Corsica Ferries increase capacity utilization with cancellations?

This is also part of traveling with Corsica Ferries: time and again, it sends customers with a booked crossing to another port. "Yay, an extra 230 kilometers," cheers one user sarcastically, because instead of Savona in Liguria, east of Genoa, he has to travel to Livorno in Tuscany to catch his replacement ferry to Corsica. Those who had to rebook from Savona to Piombino even had to travel over 300 kilometers more by road. There are 150 kilometers between the French ports of Nice and Toulon, between which Corsica Ferries repeatedly rebooks its passengers.

Why all this? Are all these cancellations really unpredictable? Alexis Papathanassis, Professor of Cruise Tourism Management, emphasizes that he is not an expert in the ferry business. He knows three main reasons for delays: the weather, strikes - more frequent in high summer because they are more visible - and technical problems - often a consequence of the advanced age of many ferries.

There is no news of strikes in summer 2025. The weather is only the reason for canceled crossings in a small minority of cases. The age of the ferries is indeed considerable. The newest ones are over 15 years old, while the oldest, the "Mega Regina", has been on the water since 1985, according to the ferry-site.dk directory.

blue News suggests to the maritime expert that a ferry company could also increase its capacity utilization by cancelling connections and concentrating passengers on fewer ships. There are repeated reports of how crowded the car deck has become after the bookings of two or even three ships have been consolidated onto one.

As with air travel, the ferry business is also about capacity utilization and handling as many sections of the route as possible, explains Pathanassis. "Essentially, ferries have to find a balance between meeting peak demand and maintaining a service." Put simply, ferry companies have too many ships in winter and too few in summer.

Corsica Ferries is not aware of any guilt

Jean from Corsica Ferries, on the other hand, firmly denies that his employer is increasing capacity utilization by subsequently cancelling connections. "Canceling a crossing is much more costly, both economically and in terms of customer satisfaction. A decommissioned ship incurs much higher economic costs than a ship that sails with a capacity utilization, no matter how low."

For those traveling to Corsica, the realization remains that although a booking with Corsica Ferries means a crossing to Corsica and back, it may take place a day later or even earlier and may start and end in a different port. If you like a bit of excitement and adventure on your journey, you've come to the right place.