The terminals of Olbia and Golfo Aranci make up an important part of the Italian port system. Both ports perform a strategic function in the transport economy of the Region of Sardinia, satisfying ever-growing needs, allowing rapid connections to the Continent.
Olbia and Golfo Aranci are in fact the ports nearest to the peninsula and the incidence of sea crossings has favoured the preference for the Gallurese berthings by those who want to reach Sardinia.
In recent years the ports have seen a constant increase, in terms of both passengers and their private vehicles.
Ro-Ro type ferries represent the preferential carrier in both port environments. In fact, goods are handled for the most part by truck and semi-trailers, although handling via rail cars in the port of Golfo Aranci shouldn’t be overlooked, because of the presence of the ships of the State Railways.
Both the port of Olbia and that of Golfo Aranci carry out passenger service as a priority function. And Olbia is also developed in the tourist sector, for the considerable number of cruise ships that dock there. There is also moderate traditional goods traffic, too, only in this location, while Golfo Aranci, besides passenger traffic, is characterised by fishing activity. Both ports host recreational boating, especially in the summer.

The Future
The Three-year Operating Plan of the ports of Olbia and Golfo Aranci proposes bring the transit sector back, in the logic of planning, in the framework of the National Plan and of the Regional Plan of Sardinia. As noted the objectives to be met are summarised as follows: the reorganisation of the transport system in terms of an integrated and intermodal system; the relaunch of the maritime economy and of coastal navigation through the elimination of structural hitches and bottlenecks; the upgrading of the roads network that should serve mainly light traffic for all tracts and heavy traffic only for short and medium journeys; the use of road haulage for goods over long distances where rail isn’t available.
To promote traffic of the ports of Olbia and Golfo Aranci, aiming at a further increase in the passenger sector and also in growth in the industrial port, operations of a structural and organisational nature are foreseen for the port system.  Among these: the creation of new spaces for docking, identification of new areas for commercial vehicles, improvement of the quality of services offered to passengers, promoting more fluid and dynamic external roads.