europe largest cruise terminal opens las palmas gran canaria

Europe’s Largest Cruise Terminal Opens in Gran Canaria

Europe’s largest cruise terminal officially opens

The Port of La Luz and Las Palmas has officially inaugurated what is now the largest cruise terminal in Europe. Spanning 14,000 square metres across two floors, the facility has the capacity to welcome four cruise ships simultaneously. The terminal, which has been operational since 2 October, represents a €34 million investment from Global Ports, with an additional €6 million contributed by the Port Authority for surrounding area improvements.

A landmark investment for quality and first impressions

As highlighted by the President of Puertos del Estado, Gustavo Santana, this terminal continues one of the organisation’s key objectives: “to offer quality services in all our ports.” He stressed the importance of investing in this type of infrastructure, which “serves as the calling card for cruise passengers,” who will now be greeted by “a terminal of this magnificence and scale, creating an excellent first impression of the Canary Islands destination and the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.”

A benchmark for innovation and operational excellence

The President of the Port Authority, Beatriz Calzada, celebrated what she called “a long-awaited day, for us to congratulate ourselves and feel very proud.” She stated, “As of today, this is the largest cruise terminal in all of Europe. It incorporates technological innovation and energy efficiency, and is already becoming a benchmark, even for other ports that want to copy it.” Furthermore, she detailed that it is equipped with new passenger boarding bridges (‘fingers’) that improve the cruise passenger experience and “demonstrates the port’s operational capability, in this case in the cruise sector, which is growing exponentially.”

“This infrastructure allows us to host four cruise ships at once while operating with the highest quality. This is leading major international cruise lines to take notice of us and genuinely want to bet on us,” she said. This terminal, she added, “is born with the vocation of opening itself to the public, of being an open space and undoubtedly becoming a landmark for this city,” contributing to modernising the image of both Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the island itself. “Cruise ships generate economy, business, jobs, connecting with the business network, with commerce, with the local economy,” she emphasised.

A historic gateway looks to the future

The Mayor, Carolina Darias, highlighted the port’s role in the city’s economic development, noting that “Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has historically been a meeting point between continents, and its port has represented for decades a gateway for millions of people and goods.”

The Chairman and CEO of Global Ports Holding, Mehmet Kutman, celebrated the terminal’s inauguration, recalling that the company is now present on three Canary Islands. He predicted they will “reach two million passengers and comfortably exceed that to three million within an average of five years.” The General Manager of Global Ports Canary Islands, Susana Gutiérrez, also celebrated the opening, underlining that “Las Palmas is a fundamental port, together with the other two projects we also have in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, for the development of future itineraries in the Atlantic.”

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