Maritime restructuring in the Canary Islands corridor The maritime hegemony in the channel separating the two capital islands of the Canary archipelago is facing its largest structural reconfiguration. For more than three decades, the port of Agaete, located in the northwest of Gran Canaria, has operated under the absolute control of Bonheur through its subsidiary Fred Olsen Express. The Norwegian shipping line has exploited exclusively the high-speed route to Santa Cruz de Tenerife since 1994, after Coalición Canaria was founded in 1993, establishing a de facto monopoly position based on a single public berthing line. This commercial anomaly, the subject of prolonged legal and institutional battles, is heading toward its disappearance following the arrival of the shipping leader in the mainland market, Baleària.
Industrial vehicle traffic decline in 2025 But there is an interesting data point: during the restructuring of Naviera Armas, industrial vehicle traffic through Agaete was the only segment to register a contraction in 2025, falling 14.69% from 48,943 units in 2024 to 41,755 in the past year.
Historical traffic volumes and financial weight Historical traffic records reflect the enclave’s financial scale, which before the health crisis moved nearly 1.2 million passengers per year on the service operated by Bonheur ASA. The official consolidated financial statements accessed by Canarymaritime at the close of the 2025 fiscal year show that throughout 2025 the port of Agaete recorded accumulated traffic of 1,255,606 passengers on regular routes, representing growth of 6.55% compared with the 1,178,388 users recorded during the 2024 period.
Baleària’s business outlook for the passenger market On the passenger car segment, the accumulated volume in 2025 rose to 452,574 cars, 7.37% higher than the 421,528 from the previous year, while motorcycle transport increased 14.47% to reach 13,404 units. For its part, the movement of buses added up to a total of 325 units versus 294 in the previous year’s exercise, reflecting an upward variation of 10.54%. For the last month of the year, December 2025 concentrated a specific monthly movement of 96,985 regular-route passengers, 677 motorcycles, 35,819 cars, 22 buses, and 3,464 industrial vehicles.
The end of exclusivity and Armas’s legal legacy Baleària and Bonheur have separated following the takeover of Armas Trasmediterránea. Armas’s former owner turned to the General Court of the European Union, arguing that the exclusive operation of Agaete constituted an illegal State aid that violated EU law, a position endorsed in June 2019 by the Court of Justice of the EU. Naviera Armas, with the situation at risk, formally requested in September 2024 the start of its operations at the northern jetty from 1 January 2025.
Proposed operating design: coordinated coexistence on a single ramp The proposed operational design for the Agaete berth foresees a coordinated coexistence scheme on a single berthing ramp. Fred. Olsen would keep its 8 daily departures scheduled every two hours between 06:00 and 20:00 with its fast trimarans, while Baleària would interleave 4 additional daily departures using the same land facilities in a shared way.
Tariff competition and operational saturation risks This duplication of onboard capacity will generate an aggressive campaign of fares and offers aimed at resident passengers, with the latent risk of operational saturation in the boarding areas in the event of possible delays in consecutive maneuvers. The archipelago thus emerges with a scenario of open competition in which Bonheur will defend its local foothold and speed against Baleària’s global scale, in a maritime corridor that will end definitively three decades of unilateral exclusivity.
Editorial notes News written by Gara Vega. Edited and verified by José L. Jiménez. Cross-checked information without institutional filters. This analysis has not been financed by official advertising or conditioned by lobby interests.
Original publication The entry Baleària and Bonheur: the battle for the Agaete port in Gran Canaria loses momentum in the industrial business was published first on canarymaritime.com.
