June 2024 turned out to be a busy month at the Port of Lisbon, as more cruise ships and passengers filled its docks than the previous year.
The number of cruise ship calls jumped by 32 percent, with 33 ships visiting the port, up from 25 in June 2023. This surge brought an additional 7,070 passengers to Lisbon, with a total of 60,922 travelers coming through, marking a 13 percent increase compared to the same time last year.
This growth in June is part of a broader trend that has been building throughout the first half of 2024, despite some earlier setbacks.
Still, the overall number of cruise passengers for the first six months of the year dipped by 7 percent, primarily due to fewer ships calling in the first quarter, including Norwegian Cruise Line, which removed Lisbon from many of its itineraries in favor of more diverse offerings.
Regardless, Carlos Correia, president of the Port of Lisbon, is excited by the June results and highlights recent advancements at the port that will continue to improve its offerings to cruise lines, including a major sustainability project that will see ships powered by electricity while docked, reducing their carbon footprint.
“The important achievement of this first half-year was the approval of funding for the first phase of the project ‘Implementation of the Onshore Power Supply system’ for the Port of Lisbon,” he said.
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The project, according to Correia, will “create electrical infrastructure to supply energy to ships directly at the dock, this reducing the impact of the carbon footprint, as this system allows ships to shut down their engines while docked.”
The update will align with the EU’s Fit for 55 program, which requires major ports across Europe to install shoreside electricity by 2030.
Summer Surge Boosts Lisbon’s Traffic
The momentum from June 2024 carried on the positive trends in cruise activity at the Port of Lisbon, even though the year started with a few bumps in the road. The total number of cruise ship calls for the first half of the year showed a modest 1 percent increase, with 154 calls compared to 153 in the same period in 2023.
While the first quarter reflected a decrease in passengers, the second quarter of 2024 presented a more favorable picture, with a 1 percent increase in passenger numbers and a 14 percent growth in cruise ship calls, adding 16 more calls compared to the same quarter in 2023.
This uptick was enough to reverse some of the declines seen earlier in the year, indicating a rebound in activity as the year progressed.
This summer, the port continues to welcome a robust group of cruises, including multiple calls from the Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity Apex with 2,850 and 3,405 guests, respectively; MSC Cruises’ 2,550-passenger MSC Orchestra and 6,334-passenger MSC Virtuosa; and Royal Caribbean Internationals’ 4,905-passenger Anthem of the Seas.
NCL continued to support the port, sending in the 3,099-passenger Norwegian Viva. Carnival Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas, AIDA Cruises, and Fred Olsen Cruise Line out of the U.K. also featured Portugal’s capital city on its summer routes.
Last year, the Port of Lisbon reached a milestone, surpassing the 700,000-passenger mark for the first time in its history. The port recorded a total of 758,328 passengers, representing a 54 percent increase over 2022 and setting a new record, surpassing the previous high of 577,603 passengers in 2018.
