Passenger traffic, Genova over 3 million mark

Genova - Genoa’s Stazioni Marittime terminal posted positive results, with the recently approved 2016 budget showing a net profit of €840,620, and a turnover of around €23.5 million. During the past year, in fact, 3,110,432 passengers passed through Genoa, including cruise and ferry passengers, a 4.4% increase compared to 2015. Cruise passenger traffic was up by about 20%, moving from 848,227 in 2015 to 1,017,368 in 2016.

MSC Cruises remains the major player in Genoa, with the company carrying as many as 876,000 passengers through the terminal, with 185 port-calls in total, in 2016, confirming Genoa’s role as MSC’s main port in the Mediterranean. As for ferry traffic, results stayed in line with last year’s, around 4.4%, with 2,093,064 passengers, 753,166 cars and 49,459 motorcycles. Only commercial traffic posted a drop compared to 2015, with 1,801,886 linear metres of rolling cargo recorded (-5.89%). The routes that showed some growth were those with Sardinia, Spain and North Africa, while the one with Corsica remained stable. There was a slight drop in the link with Sicily.

Forecasts for 2017 point to a further increase in ferry traffic, while cruise traffic will stabilize, with 950,000 cruise passengers expected, of which 550,000 will use Genoa as home-port, and 400,000 in transit.

On the investment front, the Port of Genoa Authority and Stazioni Marittime Spa have invested overall in excess of €84 million in passenger-facilities (Ponte dei Mille, Ponte Andrea Doria, Ferry Terminal), with major upgrading work performed on dockside facilities, for a total of over 16,000 square metres of new service areas and significant expansion projects, including the redesign and modernization of the five passenger terminals within the concession area, and the building of new areas dedicated to non-Schengen traffic.