Tag: Bastia | Ferry Shipping News

Feb 20

Worries Caused by Interruption of Ferry Service between Corsica and Sardinia

On 6 February, Moby Line’s GIRAGLIA hit a rock. She had to be repaired and left the route between Sardinia and Corsica without a ship for 10 days.

It is a vital logistic link between the two islands. The other ship, BASTIA, was not available due to winter maintenance. She is expected back soon.

The incident raised concerns:

How long can this old tonnage remain in service? GIRAGLIA is from 1981, BASTIA from 1974.
Since 2016 talks have been going on about the creation of an inter-island, inter-European public service contract (GECT – groupement européen de coopération territoriale), so far without anything concrete.

Feb 08

ORTC (Observatoire Régional des Transports de la Corse) published the first statistics for the year 2017. Some highlights:
Total of ferry passengers: 4,144,614 (+2.1%)
Total of airborne passengers: 4,025,727 (+9.7%) from which 241,744 came with low-cost flights.
Several ports, both in Corsica and on the Continent saw a progression in passenger traffic. Ajaccio +5%, Bastia +2%, Marseille +8% (but Nice -9%), Genoa +14%.
The ferry port of Porto Vecchio and the airports of Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari have set new records.
On the ro-ro freight side, most ports saw an increase. Only Toulon, on mainland France, went down -8%. Marseille is the most important mainland French port for freight.
Corsica Linea is the biggest freight carrier, and saw month after month a steady increase. Second is La Meridionale, followed by Corsica Ferries.

All statistics can be found on the old-style (and in French) ORTC website under ‘publications’.

Photo: Mike Louagie