Soon, Madeira will be connected by ferry again. As of July and until September 2018, a ship, leased from the Spanish company Naviera Armas, will be connecting the island to the port of Portimão as before. The trips, subsidized by the Government with 3 Mio. €/year, will cost around 60 €. Residents can obtain a refund from the state. 

The only bid for the connection came from Grupo Sousa which already operates the Madeira-Porto Santo Line. Strangely, the company expects the connection to be loss-making. Sousa will certainly have a good reason to accept this situation. It may have to do with the fact that Sousa runs the cargo shipping from the mainland to Madeira.