Aviation News in Panama

The Visitor recently reported on a news release from Tocmen S.A., the operator of our International Airport in Panama City.

Tocumen S.A. has released a new image of how the Tocumen International Airport will look in 2016. The design of the Southern Concourse, to be built by the Brazilian construction giant Norberto Odebrecht, resembles that of a stealth jet, part of the United States’ “invisible” super-fighter fleet.

As the regional air hub grows, it is taking a first-world turn. Some $60 million were spent on the new Northern Concourse, which brought 12 more gates to Tocumen. In comparison, the Southern Concourse will cost $674 million, but will integrate a new highway from the Southern Corridor (Corredor Sur) to the airport, a new control tower and 8,000 square meters of duty free shopping.

When it is finished, Tocumen will boast 54 gates and be able to handle 18 million passengers, according to a statement.

Copa wins another World Airline Award

Panama’s Copa Airlines has been named the “Best Airline of Central America and the Caribbean,” by the aviation research company Sky Trax. It also received the award for the “Airline with the Best Cabin and Airport Personnel in Central America and the Caribbean” which recognizes the good customer service it offers not only in the planes, but also at airports.

The “World Airline Awards” are considered the most prestigious of the industry and they are a global reference of excellence in airlines. Skytrax obtain these results through a survey in which millions of passengers of different nationalities are interviewed in some 14 regions of the world. This study evaluates the travel experience and measures 35 aspects of customer satisfaction. More than 200 airlines, from the smallest to the biggest are evaluated in this survey which takes 10 months to completed.

Air France to fly direct from Paris to Panama

The Dutch airline KLM has been flying direct from Amsterdam (AMS/EHAM) to Panama city, Panama (PTY/MPTO) for several years and has nearly a daily flight. KLM merged with Air France back in 2004 but so far if you wanted to fly from Paris to Panama with KLM/Air France you had to go through the Amsterdam airport.

As of November 25th, 2013 the French airline consortium Air France will be flying three times a week (Monday, Thursday and Saturday)direct from Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG / LFPG) .

Air France flights will be arriving to Tocumen International Airport at 18:30 local time (UTC-5) and departing Tocumen at 22:00 local time.

The aircraft chosen by Air France will be their Boeing 777-200  with a capacity for 309 passengers.

In the first quarter of this year more than 5,000 French tourists have visited Panama, some 10% more when compared to the same period last year.

For what it is known the airline was originally going to fly with a stopover in San Jose, Costa Rica as other airlines like KLM and Iberia did in the distant past. However, the Panamanian Tourism Authority is said to have paid 4.5 million dollars in a 3 year period to help the airline with the decision to fly direct. This is a known well published fact -rather than speculation- which they claim to have done in the past with other airlines.

The good news is, with the new ongoing expansion of the Tocumen International airport and the upcoming refurbishing of the old Rio Hato (in Cocle) and Enrique Jimenez airport in Colon for long/medium haul flights, there will be an ample choice of choice for tourists coming to Panama.

Source: La Prensa.