PANAMA FLASH! | Panama City – April 23rd, 2025
Scheduled Lane Outage at Pedro Miguel Locks and Modifications to the Transit Reservation (Booking) System
Beginning at 0001 hours on Tuesday, May 27th, 2025, until 2359 hours on Saturday, May 31st, 2025, (5 days), a dry chamber maintenance will be performed on the West Lane of Pedro Miguel. The East Lane will remain open, but lockages will take additional time.
During this period, and in accordance with the rules governing the Transit Reservation (Booking) System, the number of slots available in the Panamax Locks will be reduced to 16. Therefore, beginning with the 2nd Period tiebreaker Competition from May 13th to 17th, 2025, for booking dates from May 27th to 31st, 2025, four (4) booking slots will be offered to supers and no booking slots will be offered to regular vessels. No booking slots will be offered during Booking Period 3 for both supers and regular vessels. The total number of slots available will be 13 for supers and three (3) for regular vessels.
The following table shows the reduction of slots in the Panamax Locks for the scheduled maintenance:
Additionally, during the maintenance period, of the total number of slots available to supers, no more than seven (7) supers may be booked for transit in each direction, and of these, no more than two (2) with daylight restrictions per direction. The combined number of daylight restricted vessels shall not exceed four (4) vessels. Similarly, no more than two (2) regular vessels may be booked for transit per direction, and of these, no more than one (1) may be allocated to vessels transiting with restrictions per direction for a total of one (1) vessel with restriction per transit date. Slots allocated during the Special Period and Period 1 for booking dates within the maintenance period will be grandfathered in case they exceed these limitations.
Once the maintenance is complete, the 26 slots for the Panamax Locks will be reinstated for booking dates beginning June 1st, 2025.
Furthermore, the following modifications to the Transit Reservation (Booking) System will be implemented:
• Effective immediately, vessels will not be allowed to request a Swap, Substitution or change date
while having an HML = M and must request the CPC office the assignment of the HML after providing all the required information.
The Panama Canal (ACP), in its commitment to provide an efficient and reliable service to its customers,
has revised the terms and conditions of the LoTSA methodology to enhance the flexibility of LoTSA slots
and facilitate the use of them, therefore, these changes are detailed in the new version of the LoTSA
terms and conditions document, available at the following link: https://pancanal.com/en/maritime-
services/vessel-eta-and-transit-booking/.
For additional information, please reach out to our operators at operations@nortonlilly.com.pa.
Norton Lilly International (Panama) S.A.
Bldg. 3825 – Office 204
Howard – Panama-Pacifico
Panama, Rep. of Panama
Tel: (507) 304-4600
Main email: operations@nortonlilly.com.pa (24 hours)
