Porto Cruise Terminal at the Port of Leixões processed 11 consecutive turnaround calls for TUI Cruises' Mein Schiff 6 between July 2 and September 10 — the largest homeport program the terminal has ever run, according to the port.

The operation moved 54,351 passengers and more than 10,000 crew through the terminal, including 24,387 embarkations, 24,334 disembarkations and 5,630 transit passengers. Germans dominated the mix, and Germany remains the port's most important source market — a fact that shapes how the business is distributed on the ground.

Most passengers arrived on weekly charter flights from German cities and stayed in Porto and northern Portugal before or after their cruise, the port said. For regional hotels, transfer operators and DMCs, that makes a homeport program structurally different from a port-of-call visit: each turnaround anchors multi-night pre- and post-cruise demand rather than a single-day spend.

João Pedro Neves, president of the Port Authority of Leixões, said the growth "demonstrates the growing confidence of cruise lines in the Port of Leixões and reinforces the port's position as a reference homeport on the European Atlantic coast."

The supply chain behind the calls was split between two operators. Capasiar Unipessoal handled ship agency and husbandry services; Intercruises Shoreside and Port Services ran passenger travel and ground logistics. That division of labor — agency on one side, shoreside handling on the other — defines who captures the port-call revenue.

During the 11-week program, Mein Schiff 6 sailed Atlantic Coast itineraries calling at Bilbao, Le Verdon-sur-Mer, La Coruña, Vigo, Gibraltar, Tangier, Cadiz and Lisbon. The routing positions Porto as a base for Bay of Biscay and Iberian-Moroccan loops, a niche that competes directly with established Atlantic homeports.

The Mein Schiff 6 calls fit into a broader shift at Leixões. The terminal logged 20 total turnaround operations in 2026, up 67 percent year over year, with passenger volume more than doubling over the same period, the port said. Those are port-reported figures, not audited filings, and the port did not break out absolute passenger totals for the year.

TUI Cruises has already committed to six turnaround calls at Porto in 2027 — fewer than this year's record run but enough to keep the Germany-to-Porto air-seat and hotel supply chain working through next season.