Port accessThe cruise ship Europa, owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and consigned by Incargo, today brought to a close another record season at the Port of Bilbao. Since the arrival of the first such vessel this year on 17 March, 95 cruise ships have called at the Port of Bilbao facilities in Getxo, fourteen more than last year.
Similarly, the number of cruise passengers arriving at the port has exceeded previous figures, reaching 181,004 compared to 137,477 in 2024, again setting a new record. In terms of the nationality of the passengers, and as in previous years, the main countries of origin were Great Britain (78,023), the United States (45,113) and Germany (20,470).
During 2025, ships ranging from 104 to 343 metres in length have called at the port, with capacities ranging from 172 passengers on Mystic Cruises’ World Voyager to 6,334 on MSC’s MSC Virtuosa, once again demonstrating the versatility of the facilities at the Port of Bilbao in adapting to cruise ships of any type and size.
Stand-out cruise ship calls this year include the ten overnight stays in the port, as well as the embarkation operations of three cruise ships that began their voyages in Getxo: MSC’s MSC Poesía, on 23 April; Hapag-Lloyd’s (TUI) Europa, on 18 July; and Oceania’s (NCLH) MS Vista, on 4 September. On 16 June, three cruise ships coincided in the Port of Bilbao: the Independence of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises; the Scenic Eclipse, of Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours; and the Azamara Onward, operated by Azamara Cruises.
Eleven first-time arrivals
This season, eleven cruise ships have paid their first visit to Bilbao: the Norwegian Breakaway and the Norwegian Sky, both owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH); the Le Lyrial, operated by Ponant; the Seadream II, owned by Seadream; the Carnival Miracle, operated by Carnival Cruise Line; the Seven Seas Grandeur, operated by Regent Seven Seas; the Queen Anne, operated by Cunard Line; the Scenic Eclipse, of Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours; the Ritz Carlton Ilma, operated by the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection; the Disney Fantasy, owned by Disney Cruise Line; and the Scarlet Lady, owned by Virgin Voyages.
Over the course of the year, the Port of Bilbao has welcomed ships from prestigious companies such as Aida Cruises, Ambassador Cruise Lines, Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Disney Cruises, Fred Olsen, Hapag Lloyd (TUI), Holland America Line, MSC, Mystic Cruises, Norwegian (NCLH), Oceania (NCLH), P&O, Ponant, Princess Cruise Lines, Regent Seven Seas, Ritz Carlton, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Scenic Cruises, Seadream, Silversea Cruises, Swan Hellenic, TUI (RRCC), V Ships / SP Cruises, Virgin Voyages and Windstar Cruises, in operations handled by Incargo, Marítima Dávila, MSC, Noatum, Pérez & Cía and Romeu.
A gateway for tourism
These figures are a direct result of the effort that the Bilbao Port Authority has made in recent years, with the support of public organisations, tourist offices and tour operators, to help make Bilbao, Bizkaia and the Basque Country an attractive destination for both shipping companies and tourists. Similarly, the results also confirm the success of the Port Authority’s investment in Getxo to provide modern, safe and practical facilities to meet the specific needs of both cruise ships and their passengers.
Thanks to this, and to the excellent service provided by the many professionals who work to make this possible (pilots, tugboat and mooring crews, shipping agents, port and commercial operations teams, port police, security forces, etc.), Getxo has become one of the main gateways for tourism in the Basque Country and an international benchmark for this sector.
Commitment to sustainability
Looking ahead, and in addition to continuing to promote the Basque Country as a destination and the benefits of the facilities of the Port of Bilbao among shipping companies and at major cruise fairs, the Port Authority is also making further progress in its efforts to improve the sustainability of this type of traffic and contribute to its decarbonisation.
In this respect, work is already underway to electrify the cruise ship docks as part of the BilbOPS project, co-funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF funds) and by the Bilbao Port Authority itself. An 80 million euro loan has also been secured with the European Investment Bank (EIB), part of which will also be used to finance this project.
The onshore power supply system will come into operation at the end of 2026 for Ro-Ro traffic and, in 2027, at the docks for ferries, containers and cruise ships, after an investment of 74.9 million euros, making Bilbao the first AFIR-ready port in the Atlantic. This electrification of the docks at the Port of Bilbao will lead to zero CO₂ emissions for vessels at berth by using 100% renewable electricity, part of which will be generated in the port facilities themselves, whilst also eliminating fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx).
