Panama Canal issues advisory on Gatun Locks maintenance and slot changes

Eda Zenic -

The Panama Canal Authority issued advisory A-43-2024 regarding scheduled maintenance at Gatun Locks and changes to the transit booking system.

The East Lane of Gatun Locks will be closed for concrete maintenance from December 12, 2024, at 12:01 AM to December 13, 2024, at 11:59 PM. During this time, the number of available booking slots for vessel transits will be reduced. For supers (larger vessels), four slots will be available in Booking Period 2, while no slots will be available in Booking Period 3. A maximum of seven supers may transit in each direction, with no more than two of these under daylight restrictions, for a total of four daylight-restricted vessels across all directions.

For regular vessels, no slots will be available in either Booking Period 2 or 3. A maximum of two regular vessels may transit in each direction, with only one vessel under restrictions allowed per direction on each date. Just-In-Time (JIT) slots will remain at one per direction for both supers and regular vessels.

Applications for booking slots during the maintenance period will be accepted during the 2nd Period tiebreaker competition from November 28 to 29, 2024, for transits scheduled on December 12 or 13. Existing rules for the Transit Advancement Service, as well as slots carried over from cancellations or previous periods, will still apply.

Once maintenance is completed, the full allocation of 20 slots for supers and 6 slots for regular vessels will be restored starting December 14, 2024.