COPA To Fly to David – UPDATE # 2

Many people have been asking about the new service COPA is offering.  Ben Loomis at the resort at Isla Palenque and I have been investigating as this has a direct impact on people traveling to Chiriqui next year.  As an example, Ben booked a ticket from Chicago with the destination as David.    Here is what he found out about the details.

Tom, here is what we learned re customs:
If the passenger has tickets with Copa, and the final destination is David, they do not need to do immigration or pick up luggage in Tocumen. They just transfer to their connecting flight to David and once they get to David they do immigration there and they pick up their luggage there.

If the customer is coming in a flight that’s not COPA, like for example if they’re coming with Delta,  they arrive to Tocumen and then they have to do immigration and register their luggage with Copa. Then they transfer onto the COPA flight to David from Tocumen.

Bottom line is: it’s going to be easier for the costumer if they’re flying Copa in order to come to David because all they have to do is just connect in Tocumen and then they do immigration and pick up luggage here in David. With other airlines, they still transfer in Tocumen but they have to do immigration and pick up their luggage first, then register it with Copa and transfer to David.

COPA Airlines will now connect Chiriqui with it’s 69 destination through it’s Hub of the Americas at Tocumen International Airport starting from January 15,  flying twice a day to David’s  International Airport.  Chiriqui passengers can benefit from all the advantages of the Hub of the Americas, connecting to their destinations in an efficient, fast and with the world class COPA airline service. This connectivity will open a world of possibilities for tourism and commercial development of this important region of the country.

Pedro Heilbron, President Ejecutivo de Copa Airlines, said that the main interest of the Panamanian airline is to “increase trade and tourist possibilities of this important Panamanian province, connected directly with the main hub of Latin America and its 69 international destinations”. With these two new flights,  Chiriqui residents and visitors to the province will enjoy the world class service of Copa Airlines, as well as one of the best levels of punctuality at the global level and efficient connectivity offered by the Hub of the Americas.

Heilbron said that   “Copa Airlines, as a Panamanian company, is a source of great pride to operate a route within our country and offer the same quality of service that we offer at the international level in Panama. In addition, with these flights, we support the plans of the national Government focused on the development of tourism and growth of the province of Chiriqui”.  The two new flights, which will depart daily from the Enrique Malek airport in David and arrive at the domestic Terminal in Tocumen, will have an itinerary that allows that passengers of Chiriqui the opportunity to be connected in the morning directly to flights bound for South America and the afternoon with North America. It is to say that you  may have breakfast in David and dinner in Buenos Aires or Miami, the same day.

Itinerary

Morning flights from Tocumen (PTY) departing at 7:55 am and arriving in  David at 8:59 am
Morning  flights from David leaving at 9:29 am and arriving in PTY at  10:20 am

Afternoon flights leaving  PTY at  5:32 pm and arriving in David at 6:36 pm
Evening flights leaving David at 7:06 pm and arriving in PTY  at 7:57 pm

Copa Airlines will serve these two new flights with modern Embraer-190 aircraft with capacity for transporting 94 passengers, offering 10 seats in business class and 84 in the main cabin. Founded in 1947, Copa Airlines transported more than 11 million passengers in 2013.

The airline was named “Best airline in the Central American and Caribbean region” in the Skytrax world awards from aviation in June 2013.  In addition, Copa continues its commitment to offer a class service to its customers, while maintaining the best performance in timeliness in America. Recently, FlightStats gave a prize COPA as “Best airline in America del Sur” in 2013 for their quality and timeliness of its service.

About Copa Holdings, S.A.
Copa Airlines and Copa Airlines Colombia, subsidiary of Copa Holdings, are leading airlines in Latin America for passengers and cargo. The airlines currently offer service to 69 destinations in 30 countries, in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. More than 65 years of uninterrupted operations, they have managed to convert  the Hub of the Americas, located in Panama, to the   the leading hub of the continent. They have one of the fleets most young and modern industry, composed of 93 aircraft: 65 Boeing 737 Next – Generation 737 and 26 Embraer-190, and a timeliness about 90% to the level of the best airlines in the world. COPA won in 2013   2 awards Skytrax awards for “Best airline in Central America and the Caribbean” and “Airline with the best staff of cabin and of airports of Central America and the Caribbean”. Copa Airlines is also part of the global airlines largest network in the world, Star Alliance, offering to its customers the possibility to reach 1,269 destinations in 193 countries and enjoy more than 18,000 daily flights and 1,000 VIP lounges. To make reservations and select seats, note its number of its world-renowned frequent flyer MileagePlus program, keep track of trips, register for flights, print boarding passes and pay tickets through secure transactions in eleven different currencies,visite www.copa.com.

While they are not flying directly to David from the US yet, COPA has been working on flying from Panama’s International Airport at Tocumen to our International Airport in David.     After a major expansion of the airport at David, COPA, a Continental-partnered airline invested in upgrading equipment at the airport to handle larger jet aircraft including their Boeing 737s.

Boquete grew rapidly because of the access to the airport in David, but it was an uncomfortable hour plus drive to get here on a old 2 lane road.  Still, I could leave Miami in the morning and be in our home in Boquete that afternoon.  Now with our new 4 lane road to David, it takes only 25 minutes to get to David and with flights directly to Tocumen, you can skip the transfer from the regional airport at Albrook and fly directly to Tocumen.  That means if you time it right, you will save hours off the your travel to and from the US and skip the extra step of having to drive across town in Panama.

This will hopefully be the first step towards direct flights from David to Miami or Houston.  I have been in our little town of Boquete for 8 years now and I truly believe that we will see another boom with the new service.  With direct flights from David to the US, the boom would definitely happen.

I hear that every month there are officials from a different city from the Americas visiting COPA’s offices to try to connect them to the HUB of The Americas and thus the rest of the Continent. So in a way, it is only fair that COPA has given our own Province of Chiriqui the same opportunity.

Thank you COPA for this valuable contribution to this important part of the country!!