The Port Authorities of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife used the Seatrade Cruise Med trade show, held in Gran Canaria, to close ranks with the Outermost Regions (ORs) and the global cruise industry. Beatriz Calzada, president of the port in Gran Canaria, and her counterpart in Tenerife, Pedro Suárez, are leading the creation of a permanent association with its own headquarters and voice in Brussels. The Canary Islands Government, through its Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, has assumed the political leadership to establish a permanent lobby among the ports of the Outermost Regions (ORs).
The political move seeks to institutionalize an island-based lobby to defend the tariff competitiveness of the Mid-Atlantic against the impact of the European emissions system, EU ETS, and the threat of port calls shifting to North Africa.
The economic case for forging this alliance is provided by the sector’s own metrics on the Atlantic seaboard. During the strategic debate moderated by Nikos Mertzanidis, executive director of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in Europe, the region’s growing weight became clear, as it closed 2025 with 6.34 million passenger movements, compared with 5.87 million the previous year. Representatives of cruise lines and ports, including Richard Cooke, Luz Marina Espiau, Susana Gutiérrez, Marcus Puttich and André Velho Cabral, analyzed the need to reduce the seasonality of itineraries and establish an integrated circuit linking the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores to attract more homeporting operations.
The convergence between the demands of cruise lines and the ORs’ initiative places infrastructure and air connections at the center of the business equation. For cruise companies, the Atlantic is no longer merely a repositioning route but has become central to consolidating their winter high season. However, operators insist on guarantees for air connectivity, faster investment in the decarbonization of berths through cold ironing, and predictable port costs in the face of EU environmental regulation.
The Canary Islands’ proposal to formally establish the association will be put to a vote at the next meeting of the OR Ports Group in Guadeloupe. The viability of this common front will depend not on rhetoric about the growth of cruise tourism, but on the island ports’ real capacity to coordinate operating schedules, curb the additional costs imposed by European regulation and turn the volume of 6.3 million passengers into greater net profitability per meter of berth.
The article Canary Islands ports revive Atlantic corridor at Seatrade 2026 amid European fiscal pressure was first published on canarymaritime.com.
