The overall objectives of the Master Plan are:

1. To address the current needs of the port in order to achieve optimum operational performance levels in terms of service times, safety and costs.
2. To address the future needs of the port in order to secure a protagonist role as “port gate” of the Southern Balkans and to propose all the necessary development steps, in terms of expansion of infrastructures, modernization of equipment and improvement of access systems.

The planning horizon of the Master Plan is 25 years (2040). The Master Plan defines the current and future land uses and building restrictions within the port zone and sets:

• the operational characteristics of the individual operational zones,
• the expansion requirements of the quay infrastructure,
• the upgrading requirements of mechanical equipment and storage facilities.
• the rules of traffic management and control within the port area,
• the operation of the access system and the integration of port generated traffic to the urban environment.

The THPA strategic priorities aim to the improvement of provided services to users through increased capacity, improved level of service in an environmentally friendly way, development of the port as a “smart node”, improved marketing to capitalize on the advantages of the geographical location of the port. The overall aim is to strengthen the strategic locational advantage of the port as a node point for the maritime transport of goods destined/originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the South East Europe intermodal networks. The strategic objectives of THPA are:

• To strengthen the competitive position of the port for container handling, to develop the Container Terminal as an important intermodal node for both, transit container traffic in the wider region of South East Europe and for the domestic container traffic. To achieve this goal, an expansion of the container terminal is planned, (Pier No6), with deeper quays (-16.50 m MSL), which will allow accommodation of large liners.
• To strengthen the position of the port as the main conventional cargo handling port in the wider region of South East Europe, both for transit and domestic demand. To achieve this goal an expansion of the cargo handling terminal (Pier No6), with deeper quays (depth -16.50 m MSL) is planned, which will accommodate dry bulk carrier capacity ships over 100,000 tons.
• To develop the port as a transit cruise stop (call port) and in the medium term to develop it as a home port for cruise.
• To attract Ro-Pax/ Ro-Ro traffic, connecting the Turkish ports of the Aegean Sea to Central Europe and the Balkans.
• To regenerate the port areas which do not host operations and to exploit not-used buildings within the port area in order to attract alternative business and cultural - social activities, thus strengthening the links with the city.
• To restart short-sea-shipping operations to / from the islands of the Aegean Sea.