Liner service instability has increased significantly across major deep-sea container trades since the pandemic, with Asia-Europe routes showing the largest deterioration compared with pre-pandemic conditions.
Sea-Intelligence measures instability using the standard deviation in the number of weekly offered services, expressed as a percentage of the average number of services. This allows changes in service availability to be compared between the pre-pandemic period of 2013-2019 and the post-pandemic period of 2020-2026.
The largest increase has occurred on the Asia-North Europe trade, where weekly service instability has risen by 78% compared with the pre-pandemic baseline. Asia-Mediterranean followed closely with a 71% increase.
Transpacific services have also become less stable, although the increase has been smaller than on Asia-Europe. Service instability on the Asia-North America West Coast trade rose by 48%, while Asia-North America East Coast recorded the smallest increase at 26%.
Sea-Intelligence attributes the greater volatility to factors including blank sailings, services being phased in and out, vessels slipping into the following week and the use of ad-hoc extra loaders.
The growing instability has consequences for both shippers and port operations. Frequent changes in weekly capacity make supply-chain planning more difficult for cargo owners, while irregular vessel and container arrivals can create sudden pressure at destination ports.
These fluctuations increase the risk of port congestion and longer vessel waiting times. In turn, congestion can further weaken schedule reliability and extend overall transit times, creating additional disruption throughout container shipping networks.
Source: Sea-Intelligence, “Increased Service Instability,” 5 November 2026.
