The letter entitled Extra Ferry Trips On Busy Days (March 23) does nothing to endear Gozo Channel Ltd to the Gozitan community.

While we all understand the need “to reduce the pressure of traffic in Gozo during high-density days”, this is no justification for the incident that prompted the letter’s publication. This action on the part of the ferry service was totally unacceptable.

According to Gozo Channel, the practice of not boarding passengers and vehicles for the return trip, when a quick ferry turnaround is required, has been in place for a number of years.

So does this same policy apply on those busy days when a significant number of cars and passengers line up at Ċirkewwa for the trip to Gozo? It is unconscionable to refuse to board travel-weary passengers and make them wait for yet another vessel, when a ferry has docked and unloaded, only to return empty for yet another load. It makes no sense and the practice is unsound from an economic standpoint. Gozo-bound tourists would have been left bewildered by it all!

Using the incident of March 13 as an example, outside of the crossing itself and the time it takes for loading and unloading passengers and vehicles, the raising and lowering of the ramp has to be the most time-consuming procedure in the entire docking process.

Obviously, the loading/off-loading ramp would have had to be operated at both ends of the channel. That said, then how long would it have taken to load (and unload) 35 cars and a few foot passengers?

Gozo Channel has an obligation to ferry passengers, cars and other load-carrying vehicles, in both directions between the islands of Malta and Gozo. If a ferry sets out on a round trip, regardless of whether it is being operated out of schedule or not, it should board passengers and vehicles going in either direction.

After all, passengers pay for a round trip. Or perhaps on this and other occasions, a business decision was made based on the premise that passengers and cars going from Gozo to Malta generate far more revenue for the financially squeezed ferry service than the few cars and passengers waiting to travel to Gozo.