The maritime transport market for passengers and goods in the Strait of Gibraltar is undergoing a reorganization of the activity of its operators following the movements made by Bale\u00e0ria and DFDS during 2025 and 2026. The awarding to Bale\u00e0ria of the Tarifa-Tangier Ville line and the subsequent business operations regarding Armas Trasmediterr\u00e1nea assets have altered the scenario in which both companies develop their services between Spain and North Africa.<\/p>\n
The September report from AXSRoRo, a specialized publication from AXSMarine, analyzes the results of some of the main European ferry operators and includes several of these changes in the Strait within the evolution of Bale\u00e0ria and DFDS. The data also shows the weight gained by international services in the activity of the company led by Adolfo Utor.<\/p>\n
Bale\u00e0ria closed 2025 with revenues of 801 million euros, compared to 691 million from the previous year, representing a growth of 16%. EBITDA rose from 130 to 170 million euros, a 29% increase, while the net profit for the year increased from 25 to 63 million euros.<\/p>\n
The company transported 6.5 million passengers during that year, 15% more than in 2024, and 1.6 million passenger vehicles, with an 11% increase. The commercial goods traffic grew by about 10% and exceeded 8.4 million linear meters.<\/p>\n
Part of this evolution was linked to international markets. The passengers transported in these services increased by 68% to near two million, mainly due to the activity carried out in Morocco and Algeria. This figure represented nearly one-third of the total travelers transported by Bale\u00e0ria. Morocco accounted for approximately 29% of its cargo volumes, while the Balearic Islands continued to be its main cargo market, with 59%.<\/p>\n
One of the movements that directly affected the Strait occurred in 2025. Bale\u00e0ria obtained the concession for 15 years to operate the Tarifa-Tangier Ville connection, which had previously been in the hands of DFDS, formerly FRS Iberia Maroc. The service changed operators in May of that year after a process whose award was questioned by DFDS.<\/p>\n
The departure from this route had consequences for the passenger numbers in DFDS’s ferry division. The Danish operator recorded a decrease of 22.2% in the number of travelers in 2025, down to 5.25 million. AXSRoRo attributes a significant part of this reduction to both the cessation of activity in Tarifa-Tangier Ville and the sale, made in November 2024, of the Oslo-Frederikshavn-Copenhagen route and the two ro-pax ferries servicing it.<\/p>\n
The company, however, maintains its activity in the Strait through the Algeciras-Tangier Med connection, which is part of its international ferry network. The report specifically mentions this route when referring to the geographical diversity of DFDS’s operations.<\/p>\n
The configuration of this market has also incorporated new elements during the summer. Following the announcement made on July 29 by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), authorizing DFDS’s acquisition of Armas assets in the Strait, the Danish shipping company ultimately rejected part of the operation due to imposed conditions.<\/p>\n
In an internal circular sent this Tuesday, DFDS announces that “the assets related to the Algeciras-Ceuta route, including the vessel ‘Villa de Agaete’, will not be part of the acquisition.” The company attributes this decision to the lack of economic viability under the conditions proposed for incorporating these assets.<\/p>\n
According to the internally communicated information by the shipping company, the acquisition of the assets related to the Algeciras-Tangier Med route and the vessel ‘Tamasite’ is maintained. Thus, the operation finally executed will not have the same scope initially planned regarding the connections from Algeciras.<\/p>\n
The exclusion of Algeciras-Ceuta and the ‘Villa de Agaete’ leaves the future configuration of this line pending. Among the still to be determined issues is the continuity of operations with the ‘Ceuta Jet’, the future of the ‘Villa de Agaete’, or the possibility that the Ceuta Lines project may be raised again. For the moment, the available information does not allow determining which of these scenarios will occur.<\/p>\n
These changes occur in parallel to the movements made by Bale\u00e0ria during 2026. According to AXSRoRo, the company took control of Armas Trasmediterr\u00e1nea ferry activities in the Canary Islands in May and subsequently incorporated operations in the Alboran Sea during the summer.<\/p>\n
The AXSRoRo report indicates that the financial effect of the operations conducted during 2026 cannot yet be measured separately. Its first contribution will need to be reflected in the annual accounts of this fiscal year, while 2027 will be the first full year to include all acquired activities.<\/p>\n
After the operations recorded by AXSRoRo, the Bale\u00e0ria group has more than 50 vessels and approximately 4,500 employees. The international growth of the company and the movements made during 2026 thus add to the awarding of Tarifa-Tangier Ville recorded the previous year.<\/p>\n
For its part, DFDS maintains its position in the Algeciras-Tangier Med corridor after abandoning Tarifa-Tangier Ville and now ruling out the incorporation of assets related to Algeciras-Ceuta within the operation with Armas. The confirmation that the route with Tangier Med and the ‘Tamasite’ are part of the acquisition delineates the scope of the Danish shipping company’s operation in the Strait, while the future of the excluded assets remains pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The maritime transport market for passengers and goods in the Strait of Gibraltar is undergoing a reorganization of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6052],"tags":[6163,6057,48316,48115,22794,48317,48318,8091,7454],"class_list":["post-157027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dfds","tag-cargo","tag-dfds","tag-el-estrecho-digital","tag-maritime-news","tag-passenger-transport","tag-port-industry","tag-port-logistics","tag-shipping-news","tag-strait-of-gibraltar"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117195992432950623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}