Transport Malta and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings signed the deal at DTF 2026, the international conference on shore power, after a year in which Malta welcomed nearly one million cruise passengers
Few capitals sit as close to their cruise berths as Valletta. Ships moor beneath the bastions, a short walk from homes, cafés and the city gate. In 2025 Malta welcomed 999,510 cruise passengers on 421 cruise liner visits, its highest figures on record. Ten years earlier the count was 678,270 passengers on 324 visits, so passenger numbers have grown by almost half in a decade.
More ships at berth means more engines running in the middle of the city, unless those ships can take power from the shore. On 13 October Malta added another operator that can.
The signing
At DTF 2026, the Decarbonising the Future conference held in Malta from 12 to 14 October, Transport Malta and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings signed a Shore Power Purchase Agreement. It lets the company's ships draw electricity from Malta's grid while berthed, so their engines can stay off in port.
Leonid McKay, Chief Executive Officer of Transport Malta, and Cristian Cutugno, Director of Nautical Operations at NCLH, signed in the presence of Chris Bonett, Minister for Sustainable Mobility, and Capt. Fritz Farrugia, Chief Officer of the Ports and Yachting Directorate and Harbour Master. It is Transport Malta's fourth shore power agreement.
Minister Bonett said the agreement turns Malta's investment in onshore power supply into practical action. Mr Cutugno described Malta's system as unique in the Mediterranean.
Planning ahead of the ships
The agreement builds on investment made before EU rules required it. Valletta Grand Harbour has supplied shore power to cruise ships since 2023, at five quays served from Pinto Wharf. Infrastructure Malta delivered it through the Grand Harbour Clean Air Project, whose first phase cost €33 million, with €21.9 million from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility. A further stage has more than €12 million of EU funding.
Quayside equipment cuts no emissions until ships connect to it, and ships connect when their operators sign supply agreements. Malta has done both: it built the connections, and it is signing up the cruise lines that use its port. Each agreement turns public investment into electricity delivered to ships at berth.
For a country whose cruise traffic is rising, the order matters. Grid capacity, quayside equipment and commercial terms take years to put in place. Having them ready before demand peaks is cheaper and cleaner than catching up afterwards.
Why DTF
DTF brings port authorities, regulators, cruise and ferry lines, energy companies and technology suppliers from Europe and beyond into one room, with onshore power supply at the centre of the programme. This year that included a delegation of Caribbean port leaders, attending under the EU's Global Gateway strategy.
That made DTF 2026 the natural international platform for the signing. The operators, ports and suppliers whose decisions shape shore power in Europe were there to see it.
What comes next
From 2030 the EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation requires major EU ports to offer shore power to large passenger and container ships. Malta's system is already in use. The task now is to extend it to more berths and more operators as traffic grows.
