The fierce battle for freight and passengers on the Dover-Calais route is renewed today with the Champagne launch of a new ferry service.

The Norman Spirit is due to leave Dover at 1.30pm, signalling a new period of price competition on the short-sea route in the wake of the demise of SeaFrance.

Since the French-owned operation was suspended in November and later collapsed into liquidation, P&O Ferries has had the Dover-Calais market to itself. The Dover-based giant has invested £300m in two new superferries the Spirit of Britain and the Spirit of France which recently made their inaugural crossings.

With Eurotunnel providing the main cross-Channel competition, with more than 50% market share, P&O now faces a new rival, albeit on a smaller scale, in a DFDS Seaways/LD Lines consortium offering just one ship for the moment but promising to add a second. DFDS already operates the Dover-Dunkirk service (formerly Norfolkline) and LD Lines previously ran a Dover-Boulogne service.

Kent glamour girl Kelly Brook is expected to don sailor’s uniform to officially launch the new service.

She will be joined by Carsten Jensen, senior vice-president of DFDS Seaways and Christophe Santoni, managing director of LD Lines, at a lively dockside ceremony.

Organisers promise bottles of bubbly will be popped, a plaque presentation by Dover Harbour Board, and ribbon-cutting. A Port of Dover tug has been booked to accompany the Norman Spirit as it leaves harbour, firing its water cannon and sounding its horn.