The president of Naviera Armas Trasmediterránea, Antonio Armas Fernández, passed away this Tuesday, as confirmed by company sources. Linked to maritime activity since he joined the family business in 1968, at the age of 22, his drive led the company to establish itself as a benchmark for inter-island transport, first of goods and then of passengers.
The Volcán de Yaiza and the Volcán de Tahíche - with these names, the Armas paid tribute to Lanzarote, which had seen the patriarch born - were the first ro-ro ships, the term used to describe roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, that sailed through the Archipelago, but not the only ones. For two decades, the company managed to consolidate itself in this sector, although in the mid-1990s, Armas Fernández once again detected another trend that was about to change the market and launched the incorporation of ships that combined cargo with passengers.
Last October, Antonio Armas Fernández received the Gold Medal for his father, the founder of the shipping company, from the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda. "It is very exciting to receive this tribute to my father's career and I thank the Yaiza Corporation for remembering a son of this land, which was a small town and is now a great city," said Armas Fernández, moved and grateful, at the end of the event held in the Plaza de la Alameda, a few meters from where the house where his father was born was located.
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