Nearly one and a half million passengers embarked or disembarked on the port of Los Cristianos in 2021. They are 420,000 more than the previous year, marked by the pandemic and the months of confinement, although 265,000 less than in 2019, in which 1.7 million users were exceeded. But what continues to grow is the number of vehicles traveling between the western islands. Last year, with the pull of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, a record figure was registered, above 475,000, which caused the space limitations of the southern facilities to surface.
The port of Los Cristianos It is among those with the highest passenger movement in all of Spain. This was confirmed to DIARIO DE AVISOS by Javier Mora, director of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, who underlined the growth in demand to travel to La Palma in recent years, until the volume of traffic doubled. Even so, the destination with the most travelers is still La Gomera.
Mora, who took office on October 6, recognizes that the current conditions offered by the port of Los Cristianos “they are not the best”, but stresses that the figures for passenger and vehicle movements “give an idea of the true dimension” of an infrastructure that is under increasing pressure due to the increase in demand, as evidenced by the increase in frequencies daily by the two shipping companies that operate, Fred Olsen and Armas.
This increased traffic has made the esplanades small for embarking and disembarking vehicles in a very short time. The space is the same, but the number of cars, trucks and buses continues to grow.
Port of Los Cristianos
“Ships loaded with cars arrive and the esplanades are full, a situation that our staff manages in the best possible way, especially at the most critical times, which are Christmas, Easter and summer,” Javier Mora explained. In this sense, he highlighted the “great effort” of the operators so that the port works in the best possible conditions: “You have to see yourself there with all the boarding lines full and proceed to disembark before refilling the ships, and do it as quickly as possible.” In addition, he recalled that the port area hosts other activities, such as fishing, nautical or excursions that move around 300,000 people a year.
After an expansion approved by the Port Authority in 1991, which was finally put on the table, the great hub of maritime communications between the western islands practically maintains the dimensions and internal communication channels that were contemplated in the mid-1970s, when the route with La Gomera was inaugurated.
Waiting to learn about a study commissioned by the Government of the Canary Islands that will determine where the solution that guarantees the future of maritime communications between Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro passes, the director of the Port Authority listed different works that undertaken in recent years, among which he cited the remodeling of the inner dock (place currently occupied by the Fred. Olsen ramp), the reorganization of the access to facilitate vehicle traffic, the installation of pontoons, the rehabilitation from the marina area and the reinforcement of the second alignment, the point where the Armas ship docks.
In addition, he highlighted the reinforcement of the defense of the port of Los Cristianos, key to guaranteeing security against future storms, whose work has been divided into three phases: the first focused on the “nose”; the second, completed last year, in the middle of the trunk of the dam, and the third, the completion, is about to go out to tender.
Mora maintains that with the current volume of traffic, the response of the port of Los Cristianos is guaranteed, but is cautious in the medium and long term and refers to the report in progress promoted by the regional Executive: “Perhaps as a result of this study we will have to adopt a series of measures to facilitate evacuation and access, contemplating a technical solution that could go beyond the port of Los Cristianos, because there is traffic congestion at the exit of the enclosure, in Los Cristianos and on the highway”.
Regarding the possibility of small and medium-sized cruise ships landing in the port of Los Cristianos, the director of the Port Authority stressed that there are already ships that anchor outside and transfer their passengers to land in boats. “They don’t fit inside because of their size and because there isn’t enough time for them to remain docked for several hours,” he said.
Passion fruit
Javier Mora, who was convinced that the rise in fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine “will surely affect, with greater or lesser delay” maritime traffic between the islands, also referred to the situation of the industrial port of Granadilla.
The director of the Port Authority indicated that Granadilla was not designed with the purpose of serving passenger traffic and therefore does not have facilities designed for this purpose. “To assess its possible alternative, parameters as varied as the island and municipal ordering, the characteristics of navigation in the area and engineering, among other factors, must be taken into account,” he said.
In addition, he recalled that after the shelter works (dam and breakwater) were completed, an expansion of the dock was subsequently carried out and the procedures for its closure are currently being carried out. The Port Inspection Center is also under construction, which will be completed in May, as well as the road and basic networks (water, sanitation, lighting, telephone and drainage), while it is expected that before the end of the year it will be Completed service building.
