KENT'S newest ferry operator has vowed to shake up the "crazy" cost of crossing the Channel.

SpeedFerries.com aims to become the Ryanair or easyJet of the sea by pricing fares like low-cost airlines.

The earlier you book, the cheaper it is, with early return fares between Dover and Boulogne costing £50 and last-minute tickets £280.

There no evidence yet of a price war with P&O or Hoverspeed, but these long-established competitors will be watching a newcomer that is determined to break up the present price structure.

Curt Stavis, the Danish chairman and chief executive of SpeedFerries, a British-registered company, and his wife Anne Mette, the finance director, have put their house on the line and invested their savings in the new venture.

They have persuaded 70 individual shareholders on both sides of the Channel to invest in the project. Total initial investment is around £10m.

Mr Stavis thought it was wrong that there was no ferry link between Kent and Boulogne. While links go back 150 years, the last ferry operation ceased in 2000.

Originally, his idea was to price the same way as the other players on the short-sea route.

"But we couldn't find out how to use the competition's pricing systems because they're crazy," he said. "I've never seen price differences like that anywhere in the world. There could be 100 different combinations so we had a choice to either break the system totally or be a member of the club which is not really in our nature."

Prices were far too high, he said. "So we thought - why not do like easyJet and Ryanair - make it all web-based?"

Ninety-seven per cent of bookings are coming via the website. Mr Stavis said that the operaiton was "low cost" but not "no-frills".

He admitted that it was a risk starting a ferry operation on the Channel where there was already over-capacity. But break-even was relatively low.

Bookings were coming in more strongly than expected, Mr Stavis said, and he was confident the concept would work.

He hopes to carry 120,000 cars in the first year and 400,000 in the second. The project has created 110 jobs, mainly in Dover. More could be on their way, especially if the present call centre in Copenhagen switches as planned to Kent.

SpeedFerries has a five-year rental deal with Australian manufacturer Incat Tasmania that can be extended to eight years.

Mr Stavis, who lives near Copenhagen, is already considering leasing a sister vessel from Incat next year because he is conscious that technical problems could leave his single-vessel operation exposed. If it works as he hopes, he hopes to turn SpeedFerries into a global operation.