Algeciras limits passenger port services to a single provider

The Algeciras Bay Port Authority (APBA) has agreed to limit the passenger port service at the Port of Algeciras Bay to a single provider and to call for a public tender to award the corresponding license. The agreement was adopted unanimously by its Board of Directors in an extraordinary session on September 28, 2026, and was published in the Official State Gazette on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 (no. 240, Sec. V-B, pp. 51157-51158), under the official reference BOE-B-2026-31548. The license will have a duration of nine months and requires a provisional guarantee of 150,000 euros.

The announcement is based on Articles 111 and 115 of the Recast Text of the State Ports and Merchant Marine Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2011, of September 5, which authorize the port authority to limit the number of providers of a port service and to call for the license tender. The resolution was signed in Algeciras on September 28, 2026, by the president of the APBA, Gerardo Landaluce Calleja, and is disseminated “for general knowledge.”

This decision is not an isolated case in the port. In 2017, the APBA already called for a tender for a general license for the passenger port service under the transport regime and for vehicles under the passenger regime (BOE-B-2017-68086), the application period for which was extended weeks later (BOE-B-2017-76014), and in 2022 it did the same for the passenger service at the Port of Tarifa (BOE-B-2022-35925).

License Conditions

The object of the tender is the awarding of the license for the provision of the passenger port service at the Port of Algeciras Bay. The published terms are as follows:

• Duration period: nine months starting from the date of granting.
• Provisional guarantee: 150,000 euros.
• Specifications and Particular Prescriptions: available to interested parties on the website www.apba.es.
• Award criteria: those appearing in the corresponding specifications.
• Cost of announcements: to be borne by the successful bidder.

Deadlines and Submission of Bids

Bids shall be submitted to the Legal Services Department of the APBA, at Avenida de la Hispanidad number 2, on business days between 9:00 and 14:00 hours.

• Submission period: 52 calendar days from the day following the publication of the call in the Official State Gazette, ending at 14:00 hours on the final day.
• If the final day falls on a Saturday or a holiday, the period is extended until 14:00 hours of the next business day.
• Opening of bids: the Tender Committee will open envelope no. 1 within three calendar days from the closing date; this date may be modified with prior notice at www.apba.es.
• The opening of the remaining envelopes will be announced on the same APBA website.

A single operator in the Strait

The limitation to a single provider concentrates the provision of passenger services in the main port of the Bay of Algeciras—a key enclave in the passenger traffic of the Strait—within a single company. The measure directly affects shipping companies, operators, and users, who will see a reduction in the available offer at the port.

Added to this is the design of the tender: a license of only nine months, a provisional guarantee of 150,000 euros, and the obligation to assume the costs of publishing the announcements. The period of 52 calendar days from publication leaves the window for submitting bids open for nearly two months, with the opening of the first envelope scheduled within the three calendar days following the closing.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 240, of September 29, 2026, Sec. V-B (Announcements. Other official announcements), pp. 51157-51158 (official reference: BOE-B-2026-31548).