APB to re-run Palma’s Bus Nàutic tender after TUI withdrawal

The withdrawal of the selected company has forced the tender to be re-run; the Port Authority will present the new call for bids to the Board of Directors in September.

The Bus Nàutic in Palma will go ahead. The Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) is already working on the necessary solutions to ensure the continuity of this strategic project following the unexpected withdrawal of the consortium led by TUI, which has pulled out of the process despite having previously submitted, defended and formally reaffirmed the technical and economic viability of its own bid.

TUI’s decision has unexpectedly placed the project in a complex situation and left the APB without the operator that had been selected after months of administrative processing. The withdrawal contradicts the commitments made by the company itself during the tender process and now forces the APB to redo part of a procedure that was already at an advanced stage.

In any event, the Port Authority reacted immediately to prevent this corporate decision from derailing the launch of an initiative on which it has been working for some time and which it considers a priority in moving towards more sustainable mobility in Palma.

The Port Authority is already preparing a new public tender, which will be submitted to the Board of Directors at its next meeting in September, in order to select a new operator. The APB is therefore taking on the task of redirecting a situation caused by TUI’s withdrawal and safeguarding the future of a strategic project for the city.

The APB considers TUI’s decision particularly serious and difficult to justify, given the circumstances and timing of the withdrawal. The consortium voluntarily entered the tender, accepted its conditions and prepared a technical and financial proposal, having been expected to carry out its own viability calculations before committing to provide the service.

Furthermore, on the 27th of January 2026, TUI expressly reaffirmed its bid and guaranteed that it would have the human and material resources necessary to provide the service: four vessels, ten skippers and 22 crew members. Two months later, on 30 March, the Technical Committee selected its proposal, considering it a “sufficiently advantageous and economically viable” solution.

Despite this, just a few months after reaffirming its bid, TUI changed its position and began raising difficulties related to the vessel leasing market and the operational deployment set out in its own proposal. Finally, on the 3rd of August, it unilaterally notified the APB of its decision to withdraw from the process.

The contradiction is clear. TUI submitted a project, based its financial offer on it, formally certified its ability to deliver it and reaffirmed its viability, only to withdraw a few months later citing difficulties precisely related to elements that formed part of its own business planning.

The APB considers that this change of position undermines the expectations generated by the company during the process and is particularly difficult to accept in a public tender, which requires rigour and responsibility with regard to commitments undertaken.

The circumstances cited by TUI do not relate to changes subsequently introduced by the APB or to unforeseen shortcomings in the tendered model. They concern matters linked to the vessel leasing market, the organisation of resources and the operational deployment of the service, aspects that fall within the bidder’s business planning and form part of the risk assumed when submitting a bid.

Consequently, the situation in which the procedure now finds itself cannot be attributed to the design of the tender or to the actions of the APB, but rather to TUI’s decision to withdraw from an offer that it had voluntarily submitted and whose viability it had expressly defended and reaffirmed.

The withdrawal is even more difficult to understand given the timing. TUI decided to pull out while the procedure was still in the public-information phase and without even waiting to see the final terms and conditions of the concession that the APB was due to provide.

Its early withdrawal therefore prevented the completion of the procedure originally envisaged and rendered months of administrative work ineffective before the safeguards provided by the process itself had been exhausted.

In response to the situation created by TUI’s withdrawal, the Port Authority has maintained its commitment to the Bus Nàutic and immediately activated the necessary alternatives to ensure that the project goes ahead.

The APB is already preparing a new tender, which will be submitted to the Board of Directors during September in order to select the future operator with all the necessary guarantees.

Thus, while TUI’s withdrawal will require part of the administrative process to be repeated, it will not prevent the project from moving forward.

The APB considers this to be the response required by a project of importance to the city: acting swiftly, seeking alternatives within its remit and preventing an unforeseen corporate decision from ultimately harming citizens and port users.

The Bus Nàutic is much more than a new port service. It forms part of the APB’s strategy to use the sea as a mobility alternative and help reduce road-traffic pressure in the area surrounding the Port of Palma.

The Port Authority has been working on this model for some time. It will allow different points within the port to be connected by sea and provide residents, workers and users with an alternative to private vehicles.

Precisely because of its importance, the APB considers it particularly serious that TUI has put the planned timetable at risk after undertaking specific commitments and expressly reaffirming the technical and economic viability of the bid with which it was selected.

The Port Authority regrets a withdrawal that is difficult to understand, based on circumstances linked to the successful bidder’s own business planning and which forces the repetition of a procedure that was already at an advanced stage.

TUI’s withdrawal has been a significant setback, but it has not managed to halt the Bus Nàutic. The APB’s ability to respond will allow it to maintain the roadmap for this strategic project and move towards its launch as soon as possible.