Baleària completes the acquisition of Naviera Armas Trasmediterránea, incorporating assets in the Strait and Alborán regions

Esto es un subtítulo

• The shipping company is preserving and guaranteeing the jobs of 250 employees from Armas Trasmediterránea
• This takeover has strengthened Baleària’s operational capacity. The company will now have around 4,500 employees, a fleet of over 50 vessels and an annual passenger volume that will comfortably exceed 8 million this year

Baleària, Spain’s leading company for passenger and cargo ferry transport, has finished integrating the Alborán Sea and Strait of Gibraltar operations of Armas Trasmediterránea, having obtained all the necessary authorisations from the competition authorities in both Spain and Morocco.

The acquisition of the Alborán division adds three vessels to the Baleària Group: the JJ Sister, the Almariya, and the Volcán de Timanfaya. Meanwhile, the incorporation of the Strait division includes the acquisition of various concessions, as well as the vessel Ciudad de Málaga. Through these two transactions, Baleària will take on around 250 employees. With this deal, the company takes legal and operational control of Armas Trasmediterránea’s assets in the Alborán and Strait areas. This transaction forms part of the acquisition process announced in August 2025, for which the Canary Islands operations were acquired in May.

The president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, highlighted the significance of this strategic operation, noting that this merger consolidates a long-term business project bringing together key players in the Spanish maritime transport sector. He also stated that Baleària is embracing this growth as the leading Spanish-owned ferry operator, with a presence on all domestic coastal routes and capable of guaranteeing the strategic and essential nature of maritime transport for the country’s territorial cohesion and integration.

Utor also stressed that the company’s roadmap is clear and that it will respond reliably, innovatively and consistently to passengers, hauliers, crews and local communities, just as it has been doing in the Canary Islands. To this end, the company plans to invest and adapt all the services to the quality standards of its parent company, Baleària, by integrating and strengthening its fleet and optimising operations through an investment and fleet-upgrade plan that will enhance quality, the passenger experience, environmental sustainability and corporate culture.

The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) authorised the operation covering the Strait of Gibraltar in March and that covering the Alboran Sea in May, while the Moroccan competition authority gave the green light for both areas last week. The completed takeover of these two areas comes a month after Baleària took effective control of operations in the Canary Islands under the Baleària Canarias brand, where a three-year, 45-million-euro investment plan is already underway to modernise vessels, add four new ships and boost staffing levels.

The resulting group has around 4,500 employees and a fleet of over 50 vessels. The combined annual traffic volume will easily exceed 8 million passengers and 11 million linear metres of cargo, generating a consolidated turnover in excess of 1,000 million euros.

In this way, Baleària is consolidating its role as the leading Spanish shipping company in a maritime network that is essential for the movement of people, vehicles and goods. The company is strengthening its presence across all the strategic routes between the Iberian Peninsula, the non-peninsular Spanish territories and North Africa, with a broader operational scope and a long-term vision aimed at ensuring stability, efficiency and quality of service. This new phase underlines Baleària’s commitment to connectivity, to the people who make its operations possible, and to the regions where maritime transport plays a strategic role.