Duty-free loss hits rates
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el International operators have received their stiffest warning yet that the cost of crossing the Channel will rise next year as both ferry and tunnel operators acknowledge this week's loss of duty-free income.
No immediate increases in freight rates are expected but Eurotunnel and P&O Stone Line both confirm that prices could rise from January as the companies attempt to claw back the duty-free revenue which was cut off yesterday in the European Union.
The move would be only the second significant rate rise since the Channel tunnel opened in 1994 which sent prices tumbling—the first was this January when the two companies added a £25 to £30 per-unit increase to freight rates.
Eurotunnel and P&D Stone Line will be hoping that the end of limits on the numbers of cigarettes and drinks purchased will increase sales volumes and compensate.
Eurotunnel earns less than a third of its revenue from duty-free sales, P&0 Stena Line around a quarter.
SeaFrance, which also operates between Dover and Calais, said two years ago that it earned 50% of its revenue from duty-free goods and if the concession was abolished freight rates could more than double.