The business of inter-island maritime connectivity in the Canary Islands maintains a trend of high revenue concentration in favor of operators with greater load capacity and high-speed passenger services. Following the consolidation of the latest financial settlement package executed by the General Directorate of Transport and Mobility, direct subsidies for the 75% resident discount reached a total of 33,469,780.66 euros. From this multimillion-euro amount, a single company stands out as the main beneficiary of the state compensation system, widening the competitive gap against its rivals in the maritime corridors of the archipelago. Baleària Canarias holds a 36.2% share.
Fred. Olsen S.A. is the company that generates the most revenue in the entire sector, managing to capture a total of 21,154,462.47 euros, which represents 63.2% of all public financial injection distributed during this period. The Norwegian-based shipping company’s revenues are supported by the mass transportation of passengers on the most profitable routes in the Canarian market, highlighting the 12.79 million euros disbursed corresponding to the billing of 1,055,626 subsidized tickets during the third quarter of the year. The company’s billing was completed with another 8.35 million euros from transporting 696,457 resident passengers in the final segment of the year.
A notable distance in the volume of billing for subsidized passenger transport is held by the group Naviera Armas S.A., which recorded total revenues of 11,366,815.79 euros, equivalent to 34% of the total distributed by the administration. The maritime holding diversified its revenues through three quarterly certifications, summing up 4.12 million in the second quarter, 4.15 million in the third, and 3.08 million euros in the fourth quarter, during which it mobilized 243,018 users under the resident rate. Its corporate subsidiary, Compañía Trasmediterránea S.A., contributed another 754,371.65 euros to the group for its mixed passenger operations in the second half of the year.
The segment of nearshore maritime lines, specializing in short-distance connections to islets and narrow coastal passages, shares a residual margin of the mobility budget that barely reaches 0.6% of the regulated market. In this specialized traffic niche, Líneas Marítimas Romero S.L. ranked first with revenues of 135,588.25 euros by certifying the transport of 36,744 passengers. Finally, Graciosamar Cruceros S.L. completed the distribution of public funds capturing 58,542.50 euros from the issuance of 16,269 subsidized tickets, reflecting the structural asymmetry of a transport model dominated by large high-speed vessels.
