The European Commission has given its approval to a ?30m (US$42m) package of public aid from France and Spain to finance a new 'Motorway of the Sea' (MoS) service between Nantes Saint-Nazaire and Gijon that is set to be launched this spring.

The service will be operated by GLD Atlantique, a joint-venture between Italian ro-ro and shortsea operator Grimaldi Lines and France's Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, a spokesperson for the French Atlantic port told IFW.

The ?30m will be granted over a four-year period and the service will also benefit from an additional ?4m subsidy, spread over seven years, from the EU within the framework of its Marco Polo II funding programme for projects that shift freight from roads to sea, rail and inland waterways.

The Nantes-Gijon MoS is expected to start at the end of March, initially with three weekly round trips and will also incorporate the transport of passengers. Details have yet to emerge on the vessel which will ply the route, the spokesperson added.

The service is expected to absorb between 3% and 5% of HGV traffic transiting the western Pyrenees, the equivalent of around 40,000 trucks annually, with this figure projected to double after five years as sailing frequency increases.

Earlier this year Nantes boosted its ro-ro capacity with the inauguration of a second terminal, representing an investment of ?16m.

There are also plans to launch a second MoS from Nantes to another Spanish port, Vigo, in the second half of 2010 with Acciona Trasmediterranea Ferries as the operator.