Today, the port of Ancona is one of the most vital and active harbors in the Mediterranean area and plays a primary role in trade. It is classified as an international port by the European Union and is part of the Scandinavian Mediterranean route TEN -T.

Through the port of Ancona transit over one million passengers on ferries and cruise ships, heading to the eastern shores of the Adriatic (Croatia, Albania, Greece) and of the Aegean. Container traffic has grown in recent years , exceeding the 150,000 TEUs per year and attracting all the major global carriers in the container transport sector. Also in this area, the port of Ancona reveals its vocation as the ``Gateway to the East``, at the service of the basin of the market in central Italy, for example ferries and bulk carriers. Equally important is the oil traffic generated by the API refinery in Falconara. To maintain the competitiveness of the port and the companies that operate there, Central Adriatic Ports Authority is implementing the work plan provided by the Port Master Plan in force: two hundred and twenty thousand square meters of new aprons with a nine hundred meters long quay and fourteen meters deep; a breakwater of seven hundred seventy-six meters under construction.

The work will permit within a few years to further increase the operational capacity of the port of Ancona.