"Assalama" was about to stay on land. The Naviera Armas ship that premiered this Monday the new route between the Canary Islands and Morocco has departed on its second voyage from the island of Majorera, with almost a day of delay. A delay that has highlighted the "deficiencies" in personnel and facilities of the Puerto del Rosario dock, according to the Councilor for Transportation of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, Ana Padilla, because the operating forecasts made for a Schengen Port have been exceeded. And the company assures that the demand for places for this coming week is around 1,500 passengers.
Personnel from the maritime company in Puerto del Rosario have confirmed that "there is not enough time to process the documentation at customs." This Wednesday, the ship arrived in Fuerteventura from Tarfaya and was scheduled to depart again for the Moroccan town at 1:30 p.m., but the delays prevented passengers from boarding and the ship was unable to start the route to Morocco until seven in the morning this Thursday.
Naviera Armas had already given orders to its headquarters in Puerto del Rosario to suspend the line until a new pronouncement from the management, but the intervention of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, which has maintained contacts with the Government of the Canary Islands, the Government Delegation, the Port Authority and the company itself, has allowed an agreement to be reached, for the moment temporary, since it is recognized that it is necessary to carry out an adaptation of the dock. "Enable a second passenger control line and move the customs control to the tent, along with a larger area for vehicle control, so that it is not necessary to be moving travelers arriving from one place to another to pass the different controls," the Cabildo has acknowledged.
For the moment, the days of departure and arrival have been changed to avoid the embarkation and disembarkation coinciding. From Sunday the line will depart from Fuerteventura on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the afternoon, at a time that allows travelers and vehicles to then connect with Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. While the departures from Tarfaya will be in the morning on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. "It is not the definitive solution, but I understand that in this way we guarantee the operation of the service," explained the president of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, Mario Cabrera.
Lanzarote, next stop?
The Councilor for Transportation of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ramón Bermúdez, regrets this situation but believes that it is only attributable to public officials and also asks for the commitment of Madrid to provide the necessary personnel to this type of infrastructure. He trusts that "mistakes" are learned from and that this will serve to prepare Lanzarote to be a stop on the route with Tarfaya. "The commitment we obtained is that the ship will pass through Lanzarote when it is fully operational and the line is consolidated," Ramón Bermúnez has confirmed.