When Copa announced its new Panama City-Boston direct flight, the service made the airline news. Here is a great article by my friend Dennis Smith on how the Boston government and local business officials campaigned for years to land the route. This is how it happened.

It took over four years By Dennis Smith

It is important to note that Panama is not a well-known tourist destination for Bostonians and the Copa brand was not well-known there either. But the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport, which runs Logan Airport), under the administration of Governor Deval Patrick, and the state’s business community, banded together to convince Copa officials that they would benefit from the Logan route.

In addition to the government making pleas and offering perks, Massport formed a task force of around 300 executives from local companies, universities, and government agencies with interests in Central and South America. This gave Copa real demand evidence and proved what Boston could offer.

Joe Mohan, a Senior Vice President at Copa verified the effect. “One of the keys to landing the flight was all the local support to help drum up passengers,” he said.

Boston’s Copa initiative began in 2008. The prime drivers that sealed the Boston-Copa alliance were access to Brazil, Boston’s biggest Latin American destination and trading partner (Panama is number eight.), Panama’s position as the top Latin American air hub for connections, with flights to 57 cities in Latin America and the Caribbean out of Panama City, the fact that connecting passengers bypass Customs and immigration at Tocumen, all partnered with Massachusetts’ plans to create Latin American opportunities for the state’s technology, biotechnology and other industries.

Timing was also a factor from 2008. The Boston to Latin America market climbed to over 400,000 passengers a year. Copa began an aggressive expansion policy and American Airlines, the major carrier in the Boston market, cut back its flights at Logan. In the end, Boston beat out Denver, San Francisco and Tampa to become Copa’s eighth US destination.

So now, Boston-Panama City passengers benefit from a 5½-hour, non-stop trip, a free meal and movies in three languages.