Seven months after operations began, the third set of locks has received around 750 Neopanamax ships, more than 50% of them container ships, and in January it reached a new mark with a transit of a total of 36,1 million tons, its highest monthly amount, which was supported by the expansion of the waterway. The Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP, as per its initials in Spanish), Jorge Luis Quijano, indicated that “This increase reiterates the positive effect of the expanded canal, and is one more sign of the continued trust the maritime industry has with regards to the Panama Canal, and the impact it will have on the future of global maritime commerce”. The Panama Canal Administration announced that in April 2017 the first Neopanamax cruise ship will transit the canal, with a capacity to transport 4.000 passengers, almost double the amount that can currently transit the Panama Canal. 

The expansion of the waterway allows the transit of Neopanamax ships, with a capacity of up to 13.000 containers, almost three times more than the amount that have been transiting through this waterway since 1914.