The APB and the Menorca Island Council have today renewed their cooperation agreement on occupational health and safety, firefighting, sea rescue and civil defence for the Port of Maó. This extends the agreement signed in 2001 for another fifteen years and aims to increase safety levels at the Port of Maó’s service area both on land and at sea.

The agreement was ratified with the signing of the document by the APB Chairman, José María Urrutia, and by the Council’s President, Santiago Tadeo, at the island government’s headquarters today.

The APB’s Board of Directors has chosen the company Marina Deportiva de Menorca, S.L. as the best candidate to manage the berths on the north bank of the Port of Maó. At the board meeting held on 31st October, the Board of Directors also agreed to process the corresponding concession for the service.The APB put out the call for the management of berths on the north bank of the Port of Maó in the month of February following the decision by the company Ocibar to stop providing the service. The concession offered to Marina Deportiva de Menorca, S.L.

Today the APB moved into its new office building at the Port of Palma. Practically all the Port Authority’s administrative staff are now installed under the same roof instead of being in different buildings as they have been up until now. This means that all the customer services, which were previously located in different places, are now centralised in the new headquarters. This will make administrative management more efficient as users will be attended to in the same building. 

La Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares (APB) se prepara para el traslado del personal, el próximo día 15 de octubre...

The APB has organized, in coordination with the Spanish Tourist Office in Miami, a familiarization trip (fam trip) of the Balearic Islands in order to expose them as tourist destinations to the major, internationally known cruise lines of small and median length ships. Representatives from a total of three cruise companies will visit the islands this week and make contacts with different institutions concerned with tourism.

The port of Palma has tendered the operation of several public premises located at Ferry Terminals 1 and 4, and at the existing building on the platform attached to the Dique del Oeste dock, for the installation of duty free shops, known as Duty Free.

The total area to be tendered amounts to two hundred and ninety square meters distributed unevenly, to provide services for retail sales for a period of less than five years and a fee to improve of 155,246.75 euros.

The APB is currently offering three opportunities with favorable conditions for entrepreneurs who wish to start restaurant and catering businesses in the port of Palma. These three sites, suitable for cafes, are located at the Can Barbarà dock, used for local traffic and tourist boats at the fort of San Carlos Castle. At the Can Barbarà dock the available location has about 200 square meters and was the former port bathhouse. The fees are established at about 23,600 euros, plus VAT, under the concept of a public port and an operating license.

The sulfur dioxide levels in the port of Palma have been reduced by 66% as a result of European policies aimed at improving the quality of the air we breathe in Europe. Sulfur dioxide is a major air pollutant that causes acid rain and generates fine dust. This dust is dangerous to human health as it causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Total traffic in ports of general interest of the Balearic Islands has increased for the first time since 2007, thanks largely to the rise in general cargo transport. In the first six months of this year the total freight traffic has seen an increase of five percent, 5.8 million tonnes compared to 5.6 recorded in the same period of 2011. For ports, Palma is the fastest-rising, as freight is up 10 percent. The port of La Savina in Formentera has also registered an increase of one per cent, while that of Eivissa is down one percent and Mahon has dropped 23 percent.

El puerto de Eivissa anuncia la apertura del vial de acceso al dique y al faro del Botafoc al paso de peatones y al tráfico rodado de vehículos, restringido desde principio de este año, a consecuencia de las tareas de construcción de los nuevos muelles del Botafoc.El vial remodelado está formado por dos calzadas de dos carriles cada una, una acera para peatones de seis metros de anchura y un carril bici de dos.