A major UK ferry company has abruptly canceled all its sailings and fired 800 staff

• UK company P&O Ferries abruptly canceled sailings on Thursday "for the next few days."
• It said that it was firing 800 members of staff and that its current business was "not viable."

UK shipping company P&O Ferries abruptly canceled all its sailings on Thursday morning and announced it was firing 800 staff.

"P&O Ferries services are unable to run for the next few days," the company tweeted Thursday. In an update five and a half hours prior, it had said that its ferries wouldn't run "for the next few hours."

In a statement to Insider, the company said that it was providing 800 seafarers with immediate severance notices.

It would compensate staff with enhanced compensation packages "for this lack of advance notice," P&O said.

The Rail, Maritime, and Transport Union (RMT) has told members to remain onboard ships.

P&O says on its website that it has almost 4,000 members of staff and operates more than 30,000 sailings a year. The company, which carries more than 10 million passengers annually, operates routes between England and France, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands. The firm also has a logistics arm, P&O Ferrymasters.

P&O told Insider: "In its current state, P&O Ferries is not a viable business." It said that it had made a £100 million ($131 million) loss year-on-year, which had been covered by its parent company DP World.

"This is not sustainable," P&O said. "Our survival is dependent on making swift and significant changes now. Without these changes there is no future for P&O Ferries."

Prior to making the announcement, P&O said in a message to staff seen by The Independent and posted on Twitter by Karl Turner, the member of parliament for East Hull, that "all our vessels have been asked to discharge their passengers and cargo," adding that it expected all its ports to experience "serious disruption."

Turner shared a photo on Twitter which he said showed "new foreign crew waiting to board the Pride of Hull," a vessel owned by P&O.

A spokesperson for the company told The Independent: "P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation. We have asked all ships to come alongside, in preparation for a company announcement.

"Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements," it said.

The company said on Twitter that passengers should still arrive at ports at the planned times, where they would be referred to another ferry carry, and added that it would post operational updates every 30 minutes.

Do you work for P&O? Got a story? Contact this reporter at gdean@insider.com.