zoomImage Courtesy: Panama Canal Authority

Over three months after the inauguration of the expanded waterway, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said that it will begin offering additional booking slots for Neopanamax vessels effective October 10, 2016.

Namely, two additional bookings slots, one per direction, will be offered daily to Neopanamax full containerships during the tiebreaker competition of the second booking period, that is 21 days prior to the requested booking date.

The ACP said that unused slots from the first booking period that are carried over to the second booking period will also be offered during the tiebreaker competition of the second period to all interested vessels from any market segment.

Additionally, after the second period tiebreaker competition, all remaining slots will become available to interested vessels from any market segment, while unused booking slots from the second booking period will be carried over to the third booking period.

The number of open bookings now stands at to a total of 6 for both periods and both Northbound and Southbound voyages, as the maximum number of daylight restricted slots remain at one per direction.

The Panama Canal Authority said that it would hold a competition on October 6 in order to allocate the additional booking slots for October 10 through 26 during the second period.

“Thereafter, booking slots for dates beginning October 27, including the additional slots, will be offered through the normal allocation process,” the ACP added.

In late August, the Panama Canal Authority started accepting booking requests for Neopanamax passenger vessels for transit dates beginning April 1, 2017.