The canal has a total length--including channel approaches at each end--of 169 km (105 mi.) and handles about 60 vessels a day. Widened and deepened over the years. No locks interrupt traffic, and transit time averages about 15 hours.
The canal is strategically and economically important because it shortens the distance between Europe and the Far East. For example, the distance from London to Bombay is approximately 20,000 km (12,400 mi.) via the coast of Africa, or 42% longer than the 11,700 km (7,270 mi.) via the canal. In the early 1960s, 15% of all world trade moved through the canal, and petroleum from the Persian Gulf accounted for 75% of the canal's business. By the end of the 1970s, however, much petroleum was transported by supertankers too large for the canal or by pipeline across Egypt or Israel, and the canal accounted for only about 4% of world trade, 32% of which was petroleum. Between 1975 and 1980, in a major expansion project, the canal was widened and deepened to enable it to accommodate larger vessels. In 1989 the canal carried a total of 265,800 metric tons of freight, of which petroleum accounted for more than one-third.