Shipping says goodbye to Lota, a shipowner who fought monopolies

Genoa - Pascal Lota, died at the age of 83 on Monday in Bastia, after a long illness. He was the creator of Corsica-Sardinia Ferries, a shipping company founded in 1968 (originally named Corsica Line) when the continual strikes suffered by the state monopoly could no longer guarantee the link between France and Corsica, where Lota controlled Entreprise Générale Maritime. The first Corsica Express left Ponte Calvi for Genoa with 600 passengers and 60 cars, a port which Lota would soon leave with 2 billion in debt. Like Angelo Ravano and other innovative shipowners, Lota preferred the smaller ports: lower costs, easier relationships. He fought Genoa in court and then got a divorce, he never set foot in the SNCM monopoly’s port of Marseilles, favouring Nice and Toulon. The success of Corsica Ferries matured mainly in Vado Ligure, where in ‘98, Lota became the first ferry operator in Italy to hold a terminal operator’s concession. Lota returned to Genoa a second time, but delays by the Ligurian port led him to say a final goodbye in ‘97, after two appeals to the European Antitrust Authority against pilots and mooring crews. He also left La Spezia in the same year, disappointed by the lack of space and the hostility of his hosts. He attempted lines from Monte Argentario, in the Caribbean, in the Overseas Territories, in Greece and in the freight sector, buying StradeBlu from Benetton in 2008.

In Sanremo in 1983, swimmers were disturbed by his ship departing for Ajaccio, 15 years later, swimmers along Corso Italian in Genoa complained about the waves from his super ships. In fact, as long as the price of oil allowed it, he chased his dream of speed: from ‘94, to compete with the state subsidised company Tirrenia, he commissioned three high-speed units from Rodriquez dei Cameli, just before the Genoese family’s business collapsed. He always felt that he was caught between monopolies, and not just in Genoa. Eventually Tirrenia was forced to privatise, and on top of that Lota signed an appeal in 2012 that led to SNCM’s bankruptcy last year. For this reason, and because he employed Italian sailors, French unions accused him of dumping. Lota bought Trans-Tirreno Express in 1980, re-establishing it as Sardinia Ferries, joined Confitarma in 1988, under pressure from then Christian Democrat Minister of Transportation Giovanni Prandini, only to leave three years later because he felt that his interests in Sardinia lines were not being protected (they were in conflict with Vincenzo Onorato’s company, which was called Navarma at the time). In 2015, he dedicated the latest ship in his fleet, Mega Andrea, to his wife Andree, who died four years ago. He is leaving to his four sons a fleet of 12 ships, 1,700 sailors, and 200 staff members in Savona and Bastia, and 3.6 million passengers.