Thanks to Morocco, the Baleària shipping company was able to recover its pre-covid-19 activity and even managed to garner greater revenue than expected. According to its CEO, Adolfo Utor, it is the reopening of the Moroccan borders which has made it possible to multiply by 6 the number of international passengers.
The shipping company, the largest in Spain since the sale of Armas-Trasmediterránea to the Balearic Islands in 2021, has earned in 2022, more than 20% of its annual revenue, much more than before the covid pandemic crisis in 2019.
This recovery of the activity and its additional revenue generated has enabled the company to achieve a turnover of 563 million euros in 2022, or 42% more than 2021, mainly thanks to the flow with Morocco. , its main foreign client and despite the problems with Algeria.
Spain’s largest ferry operator earned an extra €67m in 2022, a 34% increase in revenue in a single year.
This unprecedented leap recorded by the company comes in the wake of the new relationship between Morocco and Spain and the roadmap laid down in April 2022, which was effective as soon as it was signed and whose merits were felt on the Spanish economy.
The 34 ships in its fleet carried a total of 4.77 million passengers last year, representing an increase of 64%, and for automobiles, the volume carried increased by 53%.
Freight is the only component not to have seen a great improvement this past year and for good reason, the transport of goods has not been affected by the pandemic, unlike the transport of people, which has come to a sharp halt and years later. hybrids. Freight thus increased by 6%.
The company’s president, Adolfo Utor, said that Morocco contributed the most to turnover in 2022, saying that since the kingdom reopened its borders, international passengers have increased by almost six, reaching up to 883,000 passengers.
He thus underlined the effect of the resumption of tourism and the opening of Moroccan borders, from June, which largely resulted from the exponential increase in annual income.
Adolfo Utor, further explained that these results were possible thanks to Morocco despite the fact that the most important market for the company is normally based on the connections with the Balearic Islands, and despite the reduction of its activity in Algeria due to internal problems. from the country.