To prevent accidents, vessels must travel in convoys at fixed speeds, fixed intervals, and fixed distances between passing ships. Convoys going in opposite directions are usually timed so they will pass each other in the Great Bitter Lake where there is a long double channel. Each day two convoys from south to north and one convoy from north to south sail through the canal, with a maximum total of 80 vessels a day. Yearly traffic numbers about 20,000 ships carrying between 300 million and 400 million net tons. Tankers and cargo ships account for nearly all canal traffic, but occasionally passenger liners and warships use the waterway.
Northbound cargo is chiefly oil from the Persian Gulf headed for Western Europe.
Southbound cargo consists mainly of manufactured goods and grain from Europe and North America destined for the Far East and southern Asia.