The call by AIDAcara on Sunday, April 7, marks the beginning of cruise season 2019 in the port of Kiel.
Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director at Port of Kiel (Seehafen Kiel GmbH & Co. KG) said: “The upcoming cruise season will be very exciting and we will welcome a lot of new ships to Kiel. The second and new terminal building at the Ostseekai is presently under construction and we are working on the implementation of the onshore power project.”
The port is currently investing about 30 million Euros in the cruise sector. Half of this amount is dedicated to sustainability measures. To that effect, the construction of the commercial port’s first onshore power supply plant at the Norwegenkai Terminal is on the finishing straight. The facility will be inaugurated this spring.
The Ostseekai Cruise Terminal and the Schwedenkai Ferry Terminal will both be equipped with onshore power supply plants as well next year. This innovative project has been tendered just recently.
Dirk Claus said: “We expect to supply 70 to 80 cruise vessels with onshore power at the Ostseekai Terminal during the first full operating year. This represents half of the overall cruise calls at our city terminals.”
Kiel expects numerous highlights this season and a new record in terms of tonnage. After the new vessel “Mein Schiff 2” has already been handed over by the Meyer Turku Shipyard to the shipping company of TUI Cruises at the Ostseekai at the beginning of the year, another six maiden calls are envisaged for the season.
In order to continue to offer first-class service to the ever growing number of passengers also in the future, a second modern terminal building is currently under construction at the Ostseekai, which abuts the northern side of the existing terminal building.
The sea tourism sector continuously increases its economic importance for the State Capital City of Schleswig-Holstein. More than 2.2 million passengers are expected to board or leave a ferry or cruise vessel in the port of Kiel this year.
