Ferry passengers face lengthy hold ups this morning in what could foreshadow Easter travel chaos as P&O's ships enter a third-week stuck in port.

In a tweet, DFDS said: "Services are currently operating with delays of up to 30 minutes. Please check in on time."

But traffic service Inrix is reporting hold ups of up to an hour.

There is windy weather today but for the last two weeks the company has had to take on passengers from P&O Ferries.

That operator has had no sailings since it summarily dismissed nearly 800 staff in a cost-cutting move and replaced them with cheap labour on March 17.

On that subject a DFDS spokesman said: "So far, we have been able to manage the additional demand.

"We’ve done this in a number of ways, including optimising capacity management to maximise freight and passenger loads, increasing passenger capacity in line with relaxing Covid restrictions, and adding some extra sailing at weekends.

"Further to this, we have finished with all of the dry-docking of our vessels, so we have a full fleet in service.

"We'll keep monitoring the situation and continue to evaluate what more we can do. We’re thankful to all our crew, who are working so hard to keep traffic flowing on the Channel."

DFDS has sailings from Dover to Calais and Dunkirk.

Ferry operators are expected to face more demand when schools break up for the two-week Easter holiday, with the last day in class tomorrow.

Earlier this week, Stenaline and DFDS met with transport secretary Grant Shapps to discuss predicted chaos over the half term break.

A spokesman said: “Ministers are working to understand how we can ensure the continuation of services in collaboration with other operators, including DFDS and Stena.”