Port News

Press release of "Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg "Marine Fa?ade"

The 2015 summer cruise season at Passenger port of Saint Petersburg will begin on May 2nd with the call of Costa Pacifica cruise ship, Carnival Corporation and plc, that will bring over 3 000 passengers. During the season at least 232 cruise vessel calls are expected, and the total passenger traffic of 498 000 people will exceed the 2014 figure by 3%. The final vessel call of the season is on October 19th 2015, when Marco Polo cruise ship of Global Cruises visits Passenger port of Saint Petersburg.

Other performance results are also expected to improve. The amount of additional services provided to vessels such as fresh water bunkering, waste water and garbage reception will increase on average by 5%. Higher revenue and EBIDTA are anticipated as well.

During the preparation for the cruise season “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC has conducted necessary engineering works to ensure safe and comfortable reception of vessels and their passengers at Passenger port of Saint Petersburg. Infrastructure of Passenger port of Saint Petersburg matches all international standards and requirements of Russian legislation in transport security.

Prior to the start of the 2015 cruise season “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC has secured over 200 contracts in its main lines of activity, including over 100 agreements with tour operators – such companies as Arctur Travel, Baltic Travel, DenEsti. When extending existing contracts into 2015 the indexation of “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC did not exceed 7.5%, which is considerably lower than the real inflation rate of 2014.

Presently “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC has over 20 valid contracts with ferry and cruise lines, the largest ones being Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruises, Mediterranean Shipping Company and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

In 2015 the Port expects to welcome three of the largest cruise ships that are 330 meters long – apart from Royal Princess that visited St. Petersburg last year, other vessels of the same class are coming: Regal Princess and Britannia. In total 14 vessels will make their maiden calls to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg – almost twice as much as the year before.

Taking into account the developing trend of increased cruise ship capacity and size in 2015 “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC plans to start designing the remote mooring bollards by the quay 7, which will allow for simultaneous berthing of two 330 meter vessels at quays 6 and 7. The design request has been sent for approval to FGUP “Rosmorport” and FGBU “AMP of the Baltic Sea”. The project organization will be chosen based on a tender, according to the Federal Law No. 223 “On the Purchase of Goods, Works, Services for Individual Types of Legal Entities”.

According to the Order of the Government of Russian Federation No. 413-р released on March 13th 2015 the State border checkpoint at Passenger port of Saint Petersburg was reclassified from “passenger” to “cargo and passenger”. In the third quarter of 2015 Rosgranitsa is expected to release on Order on reconstruction and authorized federal agencies should present their requirements to re-equipment of checkpoint infrastructure. After the said requirements are received, before the end of 2015 it is planned to develop project documentation for checkpoint reconstruction, have the project approved by the state authorities in charge and receive an assessment based on the results of the evaluation.

The main goal of checkpoint reclassification is to make it possible to receive passenger ferries that currently use the infrastructure of Morskoy Vokzal (Морской вокзал). It is expected that the first passenger ferry with RoRo cargo aboard will arrive to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg no earlier than the first quarter of 2017 – after the central section of the Western High-Speed Diameter is commissioned in the third quarter of 2016.

Strengthening the visibility of St. Petersburg as cruise and ferry center is an important task of “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC. Cruise Industry Leaders Association of St. Petersburg created this year plays an active role in this pursuit. “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC is a co-founder of the Association together with other leading companies of the industry in the North-West of Russia: Arctur Travel, Baltic Travel, Inflot Worldwide, and St. Peter Line.

In 2015 “Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg “Marine Fa?ade” PLC is planning to participate in the most important industry events, such as the International Transport Forum and the Seatrade Europe cruise exhibition. At the same time, as in previous years, Passenger port of Saint Petersburg will host cultural and social events including the already traditional “Nautical Mile” sports day and the annual meeting of the Club of the Famous Champions.