Panama Canal wait times ‘back to normal’

Improving weather, coupled with measures taken by the Panama Canal Authority to expedite traffic, have helped reduce queue time for vessels transiting the canal, according to the ACP.    The current wait times experienced by ships transiting the Panama Canal have returned to “normal operating levels,” according to a statement from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
   The ACP said wait time for transiting ships is now two days or less. Last month, delays for ships without reservations to transit the canal reached seven to eight days.
   Moreover, the ACP said the number of ships awaiting transit is down 67 percent from recent highs.
   Measures taken to expedite traffic and decrease canal waters time, include modification of the ACP booking system, postponement of non-critical maintenance projects, and the assignment of additional personnel to operations.
   ACP said the number of booking slots for regular vessels, as well as the number of just-in-time transit slots for “supers” and “regulars,” will also return to normal.
   Joe Walden, a vice president for Panama operations for the ship agent Norton Lilly, said the amount of time ships are “waiting for transit has improved; we are now seeing the large daylight-restricted vessels waiting 3 to 4 days and the smaller non-restricted waiting about 2 days. We have also noticed that participation in the daily booking auction has decreased.”
   However, Walden said canal users should be aware the ACP is still considering a five-day lane outage from Dec. 15-19, though he noted that has not yet been confirmed officially.