The Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has exceeded three million passengers in its facilities between January and July of this year. Specifically, it has reached 3,337,258. Of this figure, 2.8 million are passengers in the transport regime, that is, between islands, 313,000 corresponding to cruise passengers.
The Tenerife port authority thus recovers the reference path of 2019, as a pre-COVID year, when in that period a total of 3.6 million passengers passed through its different ports, just 320,000 more than those registered in the same period this year. As of July 30, the figures are already higher than those of 2019, with 577,850 people, compared to the 549,357 registered in that year.
Associated with this movement of passengers are 945,648 vehicles also in the passenger regime, 145,000 more than from January to July 2019. Not in vain, Ports of Tenerife It has been occupying leadership positions in both traffics at the state level.
Merchandise movements also registered an increase, in this case compared to 2021, of 11.13 percent, with 6.7 million tons moved as total traffic. Stand out as members of this item and with specific weight, general merchandise, which grows by 7.26 percent and especially liquid bulk with an improvement of over 26 percent and practically two million registered tons.
A large part of the merchandise arrives in containers, which translates into an improvement in said index compared to 2021 of up to 6.15 percent, with more than two million tons handled in this modality. This record also already exceeds, by up to 269 thousand tons, that of the same period of 2019. As an associated chain, the number of containers also grows, with 154,640 units from January to July of this year, 20,259 units more than from January to July of 2019.
On the other hand, 9,035 merchant ships called at the ports of the province of Tenerife between January and July, with generalized positives in each of their modalities compared to 2021, such as container ships, (+10%), solid bulk carriers (+35% ) and cruise ships (+49%). However, the scales of non-merchant vessels -warships and fishing vessels, mainly- fell 25%, with 1,822 scales, 600 less than in the same period of 2021.
inspections
The Board of Directors of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife pronounced favorably in its last session on the need to extend the phytosanitary inspections carried out in the port of the capital to Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, an agreement that in turn means urging the Ministry of Territorial Policy to provide said service with the necessary personnel. These inspections are carried out by the inspection bodies, with their own staff of officials, who currently carry out phytosanitary controls on the merchandise from Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and on Saturdays and holidays only if requested with 24 hours notice. advance.
The extension of the phytosanitary inspection services to Sundays is essential, in the opinion of the Port Authority of Tenerife, not only to prevent perishable goods from having to wait until Monday to be dispatched, but also to avoid the accumulation of refrigerated containers in the port, which would reduce the generation of unnecessary noise from the operation of these units.
