Efforts to reduce transit waiting time
The Panama Canal Authority has issued advisory to inform about high vessel backlog and additional reduction in the number of available booking slots to reduce transit waiting time.
The are several reasons for the high vessel backlog at the Panama Canal, such as:
- Increase arrivals of large and deep draft vessels: these larger vessels and those with deeper drafts, besides having more restrictions than small, light draft vessels, require more time to transit the locks, thus reducing the total number of vessels that may be schedules for transit in a day. The average percentage of ”supers” transiting per day has increased to more than 74% as of October 2015.
- Water conservation measures and low Gatun Lake levels due to El Nino phenomeno: Gatun Lake, which supplies water for Canal operations, not only has had water levels below what is expected for the entire current year 2015, but has also regustered some of the lowest levels, not seen since the beginning of Canal operation in 1914. Although the lake level is presently rising (which allowed us to avoid implementing any draft restriction), the current level is still more than three feet below the expected average for this time of the year. An effect of the low level on Gatun Lake is also an increased lockage process time.
- Fog at the Canal: although fog is not uncommon for this time of the year, it can negatively impact transit operations. During the past month of October 2015, the transit of 107 vessels were delayed due to episodes of fog.
The Panama Canal has implemented several mesures to reduce the number of vessels awaiting transit, such as:
- Postponement of schedules non-critical maintenance work at the Locks
- Change in Booking conditions
- Assignment of additional equipment and crews for tugs, locomotives and locks
Despite all these measures, the in-transit time (currently averaging 12.23 hours), the numer of vessels awaiting transit and the waiting time for many of these vessels, have not been reduced to acceptable levels.
Learn more by reading the related advisory
Source:Panama Canal Authority
