Spanish firm plans ferry service between DR & Puerto Rico

By THE STAR STAFF

Spanish shipping company Baleària Eurolíneas Marítimas S.A., which operates passenger ferry services in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, will resume plans to establish ferry service between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, company president Adolfo Utor said.

Utor made his remarks recently in a televised interview that was picked up by newspapers in Valencia, Spain.

“COVID and the pandemic have made us rethink everything a little, put on the brakes a little, but not too much because new construction has continued,” the executive said as quoted by La Vanguardia newspaper.

This year the Cap de Barbaria, an electric-powered vessel, started operating between Ibiza and Formentera in Europe. During the pandemic in 2020, the firm put the Eleanor Roosevelt into service, and is now building her sister ship, the Margarita Salas, in Gijón and is planning other investments.

Baleària has been present in the Caribbean since 2011, when it established a ferry route linking Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Freeport in Grand Bahama. Currently, the shipping company continues to operate that route and has added another fast ferry route connecting the same U.S. port to the island of Bimini, also in the Bahamas.

In addition to resuming the ferry project between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, Utor also plans to start a ferry route between Miami and Havana.

“The truth is that our project is now very focused on the Caribbean,” he said.

If Baleària launches the proposed route, it will have to compete with Ferries del Caribe, another company that is currently providing ferry service from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic at least three times a week.