FAST ferry chief Curt Stavis has promised to smash the cross-Channel pricing system and create an easyJet of the sea.

He said the English Channel was the only place in the world where "you have a price system that is only based on the number of days you travel" and where "every competitor has exactly the same price system".

Clearly angered by what he claims are dirty tricks and alleged "unfair pricing" by rivals, Mr Stavis said he was determined to survive the current turbulence and emerge strong.

He said: "No, I have no second thoughts, certainly not. We're here to stay."

It was vital to show ferry operators the price model adopted by low-cost airlines could work on water as well as in the air.

His entry into the Channel market was designed to test the concept, he said. "If it is successful, as it looks as though it will be, we will try to start up lines in other parts of Europe and maybe the whole world."

Competitors "should accept that we are staying here. We're not trying to get 50 per cent of the market on the Channel. We're aiming at less than 10 per cent and they should leave us and concentrate on optimising their own business.

"They need to do a lot of re-thinking about their own businesses and they should do that instead of being aggressive toward a small competitor like us." And he was prepared to drop his prices as low as he had to go to establish that concept.

Mr Stavis accused rival operators of starting their fight against SpeedFerries "a long time before we started up operations".

He had anticipated they would fight back. It would have been naïve not to do so. But it was worse than expected. "I just think that the means of fighting us is too dirty."

He claimed a competitor refused to move its vessel when his fast ferry entered harbour, delaying his service by up to an hour.

His tactic was not to sue people or fight for compensation. "We have no expectations of that. We expect that having the UK authorities and the European Union looking at this will stop the campaign. Filing the case and telling the world might solve the problem."

He was bullish about the company's prospects. It had already sold more than 40,000 tickets and he expected to sell a lot more with the release of around 25,000 tickets aimed at day trippers, plus a further 75,000 cheap tickets.

He had sufficient financial backing from 70 investors to see the project through its early stages. The company's cost structure was such that it would still make a profit selling tickets lower than £50.

After a round of media interviews, Mr Stavis declared he did not like all the publicity. "It's not my style," he said. "But if we don't fight back, I see that this might kill us."