The Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) has begun the review of the agreement that limits port services to a single provider for passengers under transport regime and for vehicles under passenger regime in the Bay of Algeciras Port. After the analysis carried out, the APBA believes that the objective reasons justifying the maintenance of this limitation, adopted unanimously by the Board of Directors in its ordinary session on March 18, 2016, still persist.
The review occurs before the upcoming expiration of the current license for the provision of this service, making it necessary to call for a new public tender for the awarding of a new license, in accordance with the provisions of Article 115 of the Revised Text of the Law on State Ports and Merchant Marine (TRLPEMM), approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2011 of September 5.
The TRLPEMM establishes in its article 109.1 the principle of free competition for the provision of port services. However, Article 111 contemplates the possibility of limiting the maximum number of providers based on reasons of space availability, facility capacity, security, environmental regulations, or other objective reasons related to competition conditions, provided that such limitations are duly justified.
In 2016, the Board of Directors of the APBA unanimously agreed to limit this service to a single provider, given the impossibility of adopting a less restrictive alternative that would ensure adequate provision of the service. This agreement was published in the Official State Gazette No. 84, dated April 7, 2016.
The APBA argues that the current configuration of the Maritime Station and adjoining facilities, as well as the port area in general, continues to determine that the provision of this service must concentrate in those facilities, making it unfeasible to exploit it in other different spaces within the port area. The facilities are sized to accommodate current passenger traffic and reasonably foreseeable traffic.
Likewise, the organization of passenger and vehicle operational flows, characteristic of the regular lines of the Strait, requires the use of common infrastructures such as security controls, ticket verification systems, boarding pass reading devices, inspection areas, and boarding lounges, which are used interchangeably by passengers of different shipping companies. According to the proposal, the simultaneous use of these infrastructures by different providers could generate duplications of means, operational dysfunctions, and a loss of efficiency in managing passenger and vehicle flows, negatively affecting the quality of the provided service.
The Specific Terms of the Port Service for Passengers approved by the APBA includes the boarding and disembarking of passengers under transport regime, with information services for users, assistance for passengers with special needs, security control, and access management to restricted areas; the loading and unloading of vehicles under passenger regime, with ticket verification, security control, access management, and organization of pre-boarding and boarding areas; and the loading and unloading of luggage, with control and distribution of luggage carts. The APBA will process a new Terms document, although the project will continue to include these same activities.
The proposal indicates that there have been no substantial modifications in the configuration of the port facilities destined for passenger traffic nor in the operational conditions of the service that allow concluding that the reasons justifying the limitation have disappeared.
The review procedure will be processed in accordance with Article 111.3 of the TRLPEMM, through its submission for consultation to the Port Services Committee, report from the State Ports, and subsequent approval, if applicable, by the Board of Directors of the Port Authority. The limitation agreement will be published in the Official State Gazette.
