Fast Ferries in Spain: An historical review

Abstract

Nowadays, inter-island maritime traffic and traffic between the mainland and the Balearic Islands and the ports of Ceuta and Melilla is mainly based on conventional fast-ferries. These are responsible for providing us with the possibility of maintaining fluid communication between islands in such a reasonable time that the inter-island maritime connection via fast-ferries is a direct competitor to air traffic.
It can be seen how the vision we had just a few years ago of the ports of the islands full of containers waiting to be loaded has changed. The main ports of the islands are practically empty of containers. In part, the advent of maritime transport by fast ferries has revolutionised transport. In the particular case of the Canary Islands, any type of delivery can be made in less than a day between the larger islands (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) and the smaller ones (La Palma, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura). Therefore, goods are no longer stored in the ports, but supplies for the five smaller islands can be made with regular return journeys.
Today, the data we have on inter-island maritime traffic on fast ferries for the transport of passengers amounts to more than 6 million passengers a year, so we can consider this type of transport vital for inter-island communications in the Canary Islands, and something similar occurs with the ports on the mainland. The movement of passengers that has been achieved in inter-island maritime traffic means that we can speak of a maritime bridge between the smaller and larger islands, being of such a calibre that it is cheaper to buy a boat ticket per kilometre travelled than to travel by taxi or sometimes even by bus.
The increased frequency of trips by these ships means that the islands are connected on a daily basis, making travel between the islands a sea bypass. Some entrepreneurs want to communicate the islands by the shortest route, making crossings to the least populated places and complete their journeys by land to reach the main urban centres.
In this paper we would like to review how we have arrived at the current situation and the changes that have taken place in the sector in recent decades.