TUI abandons the Palma nautical bus: the Port Authority will have to repeat the tender
The joint venture had ratified that it could provide the service with four vessels, but in August it alleged difficulties in obtaining them
PalmaThe Palma nautical bus will have to look for another operator before making its first trip. The joint venture led by TUI, selected to provide the service, announced on August 3rd that it was abandoning the procedure. It did so months after having ratified that its proposal was viable and that it would have the necessary vessels and personnel at its disposal. The Balearic Islands Port Authority (APB) is now preparing a new tender, which it plans to bring to the board of directors this September.
The withdrawal has provoked an unusually harsh response from the APB. The organization considers it "especially serious and difficult to justify" that TUI backed out due to problems linked to its own offer. According to the chronology presented by the Port Authority, the company ratified on January 27th that it could provide the service with 4 vessels, 10 skippers, and 22 sailors. On March 30th, the technical commission selected the proposal because it considered it "sufficiently advantageous and economically viable".
Subsequently, the joint venture began to raise difficulties regarding leasing the vessels and deploying the planned operations. The APB maintains that there had been no changes in the tender conditions that could explain this turn of events and reproaches TUI for withdrawing while the procedure was still in the public information phase, before the final terms of the concession were known. This is the Port Authority's version; the note does not incorporate TUI's response to the criticisms.
Three announced lines, no launch date
The selected proposal, presented by TUI España Turismo and MallorcAventura, gave shape to a service that the APB had already announced in detail. It provided for a line for cruise passengers between the West Pier and the Royal Stairs; another, of regular operation, between the Ponent pier, the Transit pier, and the Royal Stairs, and a third towards El Portitxol, with the possibility of extending it to other beaches in the bay. The journeys were to be made with four hybrid catamarans with more than 100 seats. The announced single ticket cost six euros and there were passes for residents and workers.
All of this was part of the offer that is now left without an operator. The new tender will have to determine under what conditions the service can be provided. Although the APB ensures that the water bus will continue, it does not provide a new date for its launch.
The project also accumulates another administrative obstacle. ARA Balears explained that the tender to manage the moorings for the tourist boats reserved two spots for the future water bus. In June, the Port Authority archived that tender after detecting signs of a possible leak of the bidding terms. It is a different tender from the one that TUI has abandoned, but it affects one of the spaces planned for the new maritime transport.
The APB maintains that the service can help to travel between various points of the port and reduce road journeys. As of now, however, the water bus is once again pending a tender and a company willing to provide it.