Interrupted by the Algerian authorities since March 2020, officially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, maritime passenger transport between Algeria and France resumed service on Tuesday with the arrival in Marseille of a first ferry from the Algeria Ferries company.
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Departing from Algiers overnight from Monday to Tuesday, nearly 9 hours behind schedule, due to sanitary measures, the Badji Mokhtar III, a brand new ship of the Algerian public company, docked at the port of Marseille at 7:00 p.m., AFP noted, with 1,094 passengers and 485 vehicles on board. Under normal conditions, this vessel can carry 1,800 passengers. Algeria closed its maritime borders on March 19, 2020, after a last ferry between Marseille and Algiers.
Sarah Fettouch, 35, came to the Marseille ferry terminal to wait for her husband, who had left for Algeria for two months at the end of August, after the reopening of air links with France:
“When they reopened by plane, he left. from Paris to Oran, after the death of her father, ”
this 35-year-old Toulonnaise told AFP.
“And to return, he had to wait for this boat for Marseille. It was much cheaper than the plane, there he paid 150 euros for the crossing, against 480 to go by plane, ”
explains the young woman, who came with her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Mehdi, a Parisian travel agent, came to wait for his parents aged 82 and 84:
“They had remained stranded in France, when the borders had closed (in March 2020).
They were able to leave by plane this summer, as soon as the air borders reopened.
But as they wanted to come back with their car this time, it had to be the boat, ”
explains the 40-year-old.
"They were forced to take a seat in first class, it cost them 1,000 euros per person ..."
, he blurted, now preparing to drive all night to return with them to Paris.
Corsica Linea will resume its crossings on November 9
The reopening of maritime links for passenger transport to France and Spain was announced on October 12 by the Algerian Ministry of Transport, with one rotation per week between Algiers and Marseille, by the Algerian Ferries company, and one weekly rotation. to Alicante (Spain), alternately from the ports of Algiers and Oran (west). The French company Corsica Linea announced on its website that it would resume its crossings to Algeria from November 9, at the rate of one per week, also between Algiers and Marseille.
Algeria's air borders, closed since March 17, 2020, partially reopened on June 1, to seven countries.
After an outbreak of coronavirus cases, Algeria, the most populous country in the Maghreb (nearly 44 million inhabitants), has recorded a decrease in the number of cases for several weeks.
Nearly 5,900 people who have died of Covid-19 have been identified in Algeria since the registration of the first case of this disease on February 25, 2020, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.