Red Funnel has announced that Neil Chapman, the outgoing boss of Hovertravel, is to become the company’s new operations director.
Neil will join the cross-Solent operator this May following a ‘rigorous recruitment process’, replacing Leanna Lakes – who joined Red Funnel in 2020 – as she moves on to the RNLI as Chief Operating Officer.
It was announced at the start of February that Hovertravel’s Board of Directors had agreed that Neil would step down as the company’s Managing Director. It follows a turbulent period for the firm with redundancies announced back in December and significant cuts to services revealed just weeks later in January.
When Neil joined the company in 2010, Hovertravel was transporting around 830,000 passengers between Southsea and the Isle of Wight each year. In 2016, in a year when the operator carried 788,119 passengers, Neil expressed a desire to build on passenger numbers. But 9 years on the reality is quite the opposite… just 590,000 passengers are now being flown across the Solent – a drop of 28% during Neil’s tenure.
The 56-year-old now swaps Portsmouth for Southampton, joining Red Funnel at a time when they are also in troubled waters.
Fran Collins, Chief Executive at Red Funnel, has said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Neil to Red Funnel. He brings with him a passion for the Isle of Wight following 15 years of working collaboratively with Island businesses, customers and residents, and a deep understanding of the requirements of operating lifeline services.
“His experience in the travel and maritime industry gives him an excellent understanding in managing the reliability of our existing fleet alongside progressing our exciting plans for new tonnage. These include our new partnership with Artemis, which will add a zero-emission, electric e-foiling passenger ferry to our Hi-Speed service, as well as the design and build of a more modern and sustainable vehicle ferry fleet.
Article continues below this advertisement “We know that choosing the right candidate to support our future ambitions is critical to Red Funnel, our customers and our stakeholders, and we have undertaken a stringent and rigorous recruitment process over the past few months. We’ve also ensured full compliance with the Competition Act 1998 in making Neil’s appointment.
“We look forward to Neil joining our team in May and getting to know the business from the inside out.”
Neil Chapman has said:
“Spending time on the Island regularly, I understand it is essential for Islanders to have access to a reliable service, and Red Funnel has a unique responsibility as a lifeline service provider. At the heart of my role will be ensuring safety and reliability. This includes the existing operations, but I am also excited to be involved in developing the future fleet, ensuring Red Funnel has a sustainable future to continue serving the Island community.”
I don’t think it’s fair to try and tie a drop in passenger numbers to Neil’s tenure at Hovertravel. Technology has moved on, a lot more people work remotely now.
Very interested to see what Neil can achieve at Red Funnel – the business definitely needs fresh set of eyes on it.
Oh well so it continues then..another few years of misery.
What a ridiculous move, this is the final nail in
Red Funnels coffin!
What will Red Funnel achieve taking an executive from
another failing Company.
“You can’t make this sh*t up”
Is there anyone on the island with Brains, or is it full of
Numpty’s!.
Makes one wonder.
Anyone thinking of calling on the lifeboat service should be prepared for “non-availability of essential staff” and “essential maintenance”.
Any company that recruits someone who is clearly failing at their current post doesn’t deserve to continue in business. Why do we persist in this constant round of allowing incompetents to ruin company after company in this country? These people should all have been sacked without bonuses or golden payoffs years ago , but, instead they just move on to the next victim and we end up paying for it.
The Solent must be te only place in the world where maritime activities hae their own revolving door!
I was once told that politics was the only profession where failure guaranteed promotion. Obviously this information was wrong!