Cruise ships and inter-island passenger traffic skyrocket in ports

Juan Carlos Alonso

The good bukering and aviation fuel data for April are also clear symptoms of the economic recovery

The port system of the province of Las Palmas
(ports of Las Palmas, Arrecife, Puerto del Rosario, Arinaga and Salinetas) maintains the growth of total traffic in the accumulated figures for January-April 2022-2019, with an increase of 8.81%. Particularly positive has been the behavior of cruise and inter-island passenger traffic, in addition to bukering and aviation fuel.

The president of the Port Authority of Las Palmas (APLP),
Louis Ibarra, points out that "we analyze the data on bunkering and aviation fuel as a symptom of economic reactivation, as well as the sustained evolution of passenger traffic on regular lines between islands."

In the set of ports of the eastern province, the accumulated until April 2022-2021 passenger traffic increased by 156.17% (
87.32% on a regular line basis and 315.26% on cruises).

As bad data, the tons of merchandise fell by 1.01%, while frozen fish rose by 12.45%, bunkering increased by 10.08%; TEUs fell 7.77%; and the 'ro-ro' grew 25.60% in units and 27.60% in tons.

In the Port of Las Palmas,
traffic fell by 14.35% in April 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, with an increase in bunkering of 3.92%. Regular line passengers rose by 186.16%. The 'ro-ro' rose 21.63% in units and 25.14% in tons.

It should be noted that merchandise fell by 16.69% (cabotage grew by 12.57% while that from abroad fell by 28.13% and containers fell by 7.31%
(16.39% of TEU transits).

The APLP considers that the operational renewal announced by the stevedoring company OPCSA with the purchase of two MalaccaMax cranes will stabilize the activity and quality of service at the terminal in the medium term.

In the Port of Arrecife, traffic rose by 77.98% in April 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, while passengers on regular lines rose by 105.25%.
Merchandise rose 74.30% and containers increased by 35.10%.

In
Port of Rosario, traffic rose by 66.29% in April 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, while passengers on regular lines grew by 53.31%. In this way, merchandise rose by 64.9% and containers rose by 22.75%.

In it
Port of Arinagatraffic fell in April 2022 by -36.5% compared to the same month in 2021 and moved 16,050 tons compared to 24,601 tons in April 2021.

In it
Port of Salinetasspecialized in supplying aviation fuel, traffic rose by 242.27% in April 2022 compared to the same month in 2021.