Up to 50 sacked P&O staff have now got jobs with one of the company's rivals - which has put on extra sailings to deal with the unprecedented high demand in bookings.

DFDS has taken on 40 or 50 of the near-600 Dover-based staff suddenly dismissed by P&O Ferries in a major cost-cutting move last month.

WATCH: Chris Parker says DFDS are running at full capacity to manage cross-Channel disruption

It comes as the firm is putting on extra sailings to cope with hundreds of lorries stuck on Kent's roads trying to make their way across the Channel.

Chris Parker, DFDS director of capacity, said: "There are generations of seafarers in Dover and many will have worked with one or other of the operators or both. We all know people who have worked with P&O.

"Of course it's been a tough period for seafarers and families affected. What we have been able to do is take some of those P&O seafarers on. I think we've got 40 or 50 now who are going to be starting with us.

"It's a small thing that we can do but we had some vacancies, we were looking for experienced seafarers and we were happy to see those applications."

This has been part of a tidal wave of help offered to the redundant P&O seafarers with other organisations in the area also offering direct work, training or support.

The Port of Dover has offered job and training opportunities through its own vacancies or those of its contractors.

The East Kent College Group had drop-in sessions at its Dover site to give advice and information on potential next steps for the seafarers to find alternative work.

Dover District Council created a dedicated page on its website to signpost anyone affected with the latest information on jobs, training, education, benefits advice, and other support.

P&O Ferries has had no sailings since the mass redundancies of exactly 786 people were announced on March 17 and DFDS has had to cope with taking the swell of passengers from it.

Demand for travel has been further pushed up during the Easter holiday period.

It has resulted in chaos on the roads around Kent over the last eight days, with part of the M20 closed due to Operation Brock. Diversions and other road blocks are in place.

P&O Ferries on Wednesday announced it hoped to start sailing from Dover by next week with two vessels to begin crossings, subject to passing safety inspections.

Mr Parker said: "I don't know what P&O's plans are or when we will see their vessels come back in.

"All we can do is look at our own options and our own ability to respond.

"At the moment we've got both the freight demand and of course the peak Easter traffic for passengers and that obviously adds to the complexity of the situation.

"Once we get past Easter and the passenger traffic drops down again it will become slightly easier to manage.

"But until we have a resolution on the capacity front we are going out full.

"We've seen a huge spike in bookings but our staff have a can-do attitude."

"There's not much more that we can do other than try to make it as easy as possible for those coming through the port."

Mr Parker said DFDS was responding to the demand by having more sailings at weekends, taking more passengers per ship and using berths at Newhaven and Sheerness.

He said: "We've seen a huge spike in bookings both in terms of freight and passenger traffic. Where we would have peak times during the week we've been running at a peak pretty much throughout the week.

"I've never seen anything like this in 30 years in shipping.

"But it's really been heartening to see how our staff have responded to this. They've really thrown themselves at it. They have a can-do attitude."

Mr Parker advised passengers with tickets to continue to check in 90 minutes before a booked departure and they would be put on the next available sailing.

But he warned: "If you haven't got a ticket then please don't turn up at the port because there just isn't space and we'll have to turn you away. So please do pre-book.

"Otherwise the message is we're running, we're very busy but we will get you there."

But with the continuing strain of demand DFDS has now tweeted that it has no availability for P&O customers from today (Friday) until 11.59pm on Sunday, April 10.

People affected should contact P&O Ferries for alternative travel arrangements.

It has also emerged a major post-Brexit customs system has crashed, which is adding extra time for lorries heading to the Continent.