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The board of directors of Cruceros Malaga S.A., the company operating Malaga’s Eastern Passenger Terminal since its inauguration in December 2007, awarded last Wednesday the construction of the second phase of the Passenger Terminal.
The project consists of two parts: the construction of the building itself, awarded to Sacyr; and its equipment (climate and ventilation, electricity, plumbing, bathroom fittings, fire extinction, communications and security, etc.), awarded to Crespo y Blasco S.A. The whole project has a total investment of 15 million euros, and will be ready in 18 months.
Features of the project
The second stage of the Eastern Passenger Terminal will have an area of 7,714 sqm, distributed on two floors. Its construction will start earlier than planned, due to the significant increase in cruise traffic at the Port of Malaga.
When this enlargement is ready, the Passenger Terminal will have a total area of 13,700 sqm and will be able to be used as two independent terminals. The existing terminal, which started operation in January 2008, will receive passengers coming from the Southern berth. The second phase will receive passengers coming from the Northern berth, which was inaugurated last October, thus making it possible that two cruise ships operate at the same time.
The construction of the Eastern Passenger Terminal is based on the simplicity in its structure to facilitate operations inside the building. The Passenger Terminal responds to basic necessities arising from the embarking and disembarking of the largest cruise ships.
The Port of Malaga is expecting an increase of around 40% of total cruise passengers in 2009 compared with 2008. (See table below for cruise traffic growth for the Port of Malaga.)
The most important shipping lines in the sector have positioned their cruise ships in the Port of Malaga in 2009. In this way, the vessels ‘Navigator of the Seas’, ‘Grand Voyager’ and ‘Zenith’ started and finished their itineraries at the port this autumn. At the same time, the cruise ships ‘MSC Lirica’ and ‘MSC Orchestra’, among others, are carrying out partial turnarounds in Malaga.
The Port of Malaga foresees a total figure of 103,896 turnaround passengers in 2009. This figure represents an increase of 278% related to the 27,471 passengers who embarked and disembarked in Malaga during 2008. This would mean that for each two turnaround passengers in Malaga in 2008, there will be more than seven in 2009.
The Port of Malaga foresees a total of 17 new calls by the end of 2009, which means an increase of 13.3% related to last year, during which 15 new calls were received.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
