Cagliari (Sardinia Italy)

Cagliari is a major port city and Sardinia Island's capital, with population around 155,000. Cagliari Port (locode ITCAG) is the island's principal seaport and by berth line/docking capacity is ranked among the Mediterranean's largest.

The island is served by Cagliari Elmas Airport, handling regularly scheduled domestic and international flights linking to France, UK (London), Spain (Barcelona), Malta, Italy (by Ryanair, Volotea, Wizz Air). Large European airports are also accessed via seasonal flights.

Regularly scheduled ferries link Cagliari with mainland Italy (Civitavecchia, Naples) and Sicily (Palermo). The services (provided by Grimaldi Lines) include 3x weekly crossings to Civitavecchia (travel time ~13 hours) and to Naples (~15 hours) and 1x weekly crossing to Palermo (~12 hours).

Since 2016, the cruise port is managed under concession by Global Ports Holding (2004-founded, the world's largest cruise port operator).

Sardinia's capital Cagliari lies between the mountains and the sea, on the island's southern coast. The upper town's old quarter is dominated by Pisan fortifications of Castello, including the 14th-century towers of the Elefante and San Pancrazio. Santa Cecilia Cathedral has some original sections (from the 13th century), but most of the building is baroque due to its 17th-century reconstruction. Other popular tourist attractions include two castles (Palazzo Viceregio, Palazzo Arcivescovile), four museums, old churches (including early Christian, from the 5th-6th centuries), San Saturnino Basilica, Roman-times sites (Villa di Tigellio, Anfiteatro Romano), great beaches within easy reach from the city.

For season 2017, Port Cagliari reported a record year with booked 176 ship berthings and 420.000+ cruise tourists.

On May 18, 2018, Noble Caledonia's superyacht Panorama 2 became the port's first-ever cruise vessel operating a Cagliari roundtrip itinerary. The small-sized sailship was used for testing the port’s ability for turnaround (homeporting) operations. Future plans include expanding the facilities, airport transfers, building a local supply chain for bunkering/ship provisioning.

Following the 2+ years pause in cruise shipping due to the COVID crisis, in 2022 Port Cagliari had scheduled a total of 120 ship calls with estimated ~200,000 tourists. The port's main/biggest customer is Costa Cruises, which in 2022 had booked 33 berthings bringing ~100,000 tourists.