Q&A between the commissioner of the Harbour Authority of Piombino and BluNavy, that they maintain positions divergent



The protest turned from the BluNavy in confronts of the Harbour Authority of Piombino and Elba, accused to prohibit to the navigation company the restoration of own service Lead-Portoferraio ferry in the winter season ( on 17 November 2014), it has provoked the reaction of the commissioner of the harbour agency, Luciano Guerrieri, than in its turn it has accused BluNavy to have released incorrect communications.

Warriors have remembered that they give about three years is in vigor the new regulation approved of from the Harbour Authority as a result of the provision of the Guarantor Authority of the Competition and Market (AGCM) assumed with the acquisition of Toremar by Moby and with which in the 2011 Antitrust had bound own authorization to the respect of a series of measures times to favor the development of the competition on the routes for the Island of Elba, measures times to exceed the barriers to the entrance of other operators on such routes due to the limited number of effettuabili landings place from the port of Piombino towards Elba and in particular towards Portoferraio. Warriors have specified that such regulation "has given rise to a re-balance of the market with an entering new (Forship) and to the consolidation of the presence of BluNavy. The hour programmings from 2011 today - it has specified - always are carried out with proposals advanced from the same companies, with the coordination of the Harbour Authority and with the subscription in Conference of the services by all the same ones. The procedure - it has emphasized the commissioner of the harbour agency - is therefore very note to the companies, included the points and the references that are proposed to guarantee the maintenance of intransgressible safety margins in our ports".

Warriors have explained that this BluNavy year is not concerned to the normal procedure deciding to anticipate an own proposal "that - it has evidenced - the Harbour Authority has estimated however without some prejudice". Warriors have confirmed that the proposal of the company previews the increment of four race every day in the summery period, in order to reach a total of nine departures, and the three effettuazione of race (the two saturday and Sunday) in the winter period. "To emphasize - it has emphasized - than for winter period BluNavy it intends the period 1° January - 26 March, while no service is proposed for the period 5 October - 31 Decembers, delineating a partial winter seasonality".

Moreover Warriors have confirmed that the proposal of BluNavy subordinates the effettuazione of the winter service to the widening of that summery one: "here therefore - it has accused the commissioner of the harbour authority - than the company it communicates "wrong" and it shows of wanting to perhaps play a game not more on the closely technical plan, because the Authority has not absolutely denied to BluNavy the possibility to carry out the period () only partially winter, but it has put again to the society every decision to light of the guidelines emerged regarding the summery period, moreover not definitive second the procedure and the legal regulations".

Warriors have clarified that "the Harbour Authority does not have some objection on the winter part. Anything but. We remember - has added - as this aspect of the protection of the service for all the period of the year has been always a flag that the Harbour Authority of Piombino and Elba has constantly maintained high, although taken of position contrary the not little interested economic perlopiù subjects that they have unfortunately found side in precise dispositions of the AGCM. It is as a result of such disposition - it has specified - than the Harbour Authority has had to remove from own regulations the preference - other things being equal - "come to an agreement to operators disposed to offer to connections all the year" because penalizing "I confront competitive". On this point - she has emphasized - critics do not accept themselves and can demonstrate to actions friendly asserted how much".

The commissioner of the Harbour Authority has remembered also as on September 19, 2012 BluNavy has communicated suddenly the cessation of own tortures winter approved of a year before "leaving discovered the programming from 1° October with on 31 December single 11 days of notice. The Harbour Authority - it has found - was forced hurriedly to reprogram with great difficulty last the three months of the year finding the availability of the historical operators".

Warriors have rimarcato that "the objections of the Harbour Authority are alone on the increment of the summery service, date the increase of the number of the hour bands yields available during the last few years in relationship balanced with the potentialities of marine and terrestrial infrastructures. We remember incidentally - it has added - that for Elba they only turn out in summer 58 departures (more 58 arrives) to the day, to which the remaining marine activity joins to all. This means that the harbour watery mirror and in particular the areas of evolution, income and expenditure, is engaged every eight minutes, activity that is necessary to coordinate compatibly with the availability of the spaces to earth and the practicability within and outside the ports".

"The problematic one - it has concluded Warriors - is therefore exclusively technical and concerns in good substance to the problematic ones tied to safety and the accomplishment of the total harbour activities. With regard to the technical departments they have produced relations that abundantly motivate the current position of the Harbour Authority. Pack-saddles to think for example that the same proposal of the company is based on the arrival foundation/departure of Toremar ships to the slides of the fleeting port of Piombino with escape from the garage together with the cars and therefore without the use of the current accommodation ladders for lateral escape. And that, for example, in the port of Portoferraio it would turn out almost impossible to manage not only the operativity of the docks but neither to guarantee the mooring to the cruise ships".

The motivations adduced from Warriors to the prohibition tax from the Harbour Authority of Piombino and Elba to the widening of the summery marine services on the line Lead-Portoferraio di BluNavy are received with "regret" from the company, that it has assured to have "always respected the procedures dictated from the Authority for the allocation of approaches". "The company - it has specified BluNavy - has invited the Harbour Authority to make available four new slots for the summery season, considering them technically feasible. Contextually, confiding that the Authority had favorably estimated the creation of such new slots, our society has expressed the will to acquire them, carrying out also the winter service, having of moreover full authority second the rules dictated from the same Authority".

Blunavy has confirmed of being "interested to carry out its activity for all the year considering that the service of transport on the Lead-Portoferraio draft is practised, during the winter season, in a situation of substantial monopoly, and that the same BluNavy has been in more occasions invited publicly, also from the competition, to carry out the winter service "also".
Always it is declared openly by our company - it has emphasized BluNavy - than the reactivation of the winter service is conditioned by the contextual summery increase of the number of race, in the minim necessary in order to allow us to offer to an alternative and economically sustainable service for a management lacking in contributions publics".

With reference to the winter service, the company has remembered that, "to the aim to avoid every misunderstanding or instrumentalization, as already clearly it was specified in the letter sent to the Authority on October 20, 2014, the BluNavy had been engaged to carry out the winter service, in case of contextual allocation of the four new summery slots, "for the entire period anniversary", and therefore it would obviously have carried out the service also successively on 4 October and until on December 31, 2015".

"To be accused of "dirty game" from the commissioner of the agency that would have to be super partes and that in the past it is invited by the Guarantor Authority of the Competition and the Market not to grant run extraordinary that they could favor ingiustificatamente the operator with greater power of market, in damage of the competition - BluNavy has denounced - is heavy and unwarrantable. For such declarations we have displeased and we consider sufficient the centers institutional in order to support our reasons".