The Port System Authority of the Adriatic Sea Centrale has published the notice for a new concession application presented by the MSC shipowner group to manage areas, quays and cruise traffic in the port of Ancona, including the construction of and the management of a maritime station. The duration of the concession proposed by MSC is 35 years old. The first application submitted for operate terminal activities by MSC Cruises, the company cruise ship of the MSC group, dates back to 2021 and provided for a duration of of the 25-year concession ( of 27 May 2021). Following the observations submitted by the Fincantieri shipbuilding group and the notice of opposition presented by the Anek shipping company, which subsequently has become part of the Greek shipowning group Attica Holdings, had led the port authority to claim the Design and construction of the passenger terminal at the quay No 15 (subject to a first transitional phase of the proposal presented by MSC Cruises). Subsequently, last April, the MSC group had presented additions to update the technical-economic, timing and project documentation of the new maritime station that MSC intends to design, to build and manage.

In particular, the new instance provides for a transitional phase, with effect proposed from 2026 or in any case from the availability of the terminal that will be built by the port authority and the duration not exceeding seven years from the date of subscription of the concession, relating to an area of about 3,630 square meters at pier 15 of Molo XXIX Settembre and an area of about 1,730 square meters currently occupied by the tensile structure used as a cruise terminal that will be redeveloped to by the Port System Authority, replacing the current tensile structure with a new terminal, also the subject of the concession. In the transitional phase, the quay area will be consented to on a non-exclusive basis and therefore will be used by the concessionaire limited to cruise ship calls. It is there is also an obligation to ensure access to passengers in waiting for boarding on board the ferries to the structure intended for terminal on quay 15 which will be built by of the Port Authority.

The application then provides for a definitive phase starting from delivery of the state-owned areas and appurtenances of the pier to be carried out by and at the expense of the Port Authority on the external front of the pier Clementino, whose completion is currently estimated at 31 December 2031. The final phase relates to an area of about 7,400 square meters on which the construction of a maritime station with financing from the company relating to the design and construction of the itself for an area of about 2,600 square meters, according to the project that MSC reserves the right to attach in order to improvement of the investigation process, also in relation to the concomitant infrastructural interventions envisaged in the programming of the Port Authority.

The fee offered by the applicant company is consisting of a fixed part of 50 thousand euros per year and a variable part equal to 0.30 euros per embarking passenger, disembarking or in transit. In addition, there is a mechanism for compensation of the operating costs to be incurred by the Concessionaire for Cruise Terminal Availability present on pier 15 in the months of July and August in favor of the passengers waiting to board ferries with reduction, in the transitional phase, of the annual rent envisaged.

Any competing questions and comments must be submitted by 18 March.

Announcing the submission of the application, the president of the Port Authority of the Central Adriatic Sea, Vincenzo Garofalo, highlighted that "The cruise traffic of the port of Ancona and the project for the quayside of the external front of the Clementino Pier continue to garner interest and commitment to an investment of the main cruise operator in the Mediterranean. One proposal for the expansion of the sector in the airport that favors a path of qualitative and organizational improvement of the offer towards passengers, a further element to support the strategy regional tourism development as an opportunity for growth, knowledge and openness of the territory".