The Port of Kiel expects to receive one million passengers across 173 cruise ship calls in 2024, and remains focused on its goal of hosting cruise ships year-round.
Last year, the port recorded 1.187 million passengers and 217 port calls. Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel, states that increasingly larger vessels are calling at the port, resulting in a stable number of passengers despite the lower number of port calls.
Year-round operations
Four calls have been booked in January and February by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises' Hanseatic Nature, a key milestone for Kiel in its ambition to serve cruise ships year-round.
The first call took place on January 4th, the second is scheduled for today, and the remaining two will occur in February. The line has several calls scheduled throughout the year, in conjunction with Phoenix Reisen.
On December 20, the Phoenix Reisen Amadea will visit the city on its route from Travemünde to Hamburg.
AIDA Cruises, MSC Cruises, TUI Cruises and Costa Crociere are the cruise lines that will make the most stops in 2024, including turnarounds, and Holland America Line will be among the cruise lines whose ships make transit stops.
Ground power
It is expected that no less than 100 calls will receive on-ground power in 2024.
By the 2025 season, Kiel will expand its onshore power station at Ostseekai, enabling it to simultaneously supply green energy to cruise ships at both berths. Currently, only one ship can be supplied with onshore power at Ostseekai at a time.
Slightly less than half of the ferry and cruise ship calls at Kiel in 2023 were powered by shore power.
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