Copa’s Track Record Enhances the Panama Fishing Experience
Copa Airlines has been on something of a tear in recent months, benefitting fishing travelers headed to Panama, adding direct routes from Austin and Baltimore to their numerous flights from the continental US to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City.
We’ve haven’t used COPA exclusively for our initial leg to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge on our past three trips – choosing it only when schedules and rates have been favorable -- but we’ve generally been quite pleased with their service. Now the data backs us up: A report from independent assessor Cirium named Copa their winner for all of Latin America for 2023 on-time performance. Their punctuality percentage of 89.46% over $115,657 flights gave them a nearly 4 percent advantage over runner-up Avianca (Colombia’s flag carrier) and more than a 10 percent margin over carriers like Aeromexico, Gol and Aerolineas Argentinas.
While Avianca was second for Latin American performance, oddly enough they were number one globally. Copa does not fly to enough continents to qualify. Avianca notched an 85.73% on-time arrival rate over 213,039 global flights.
Compounding the good news for those who want to chase billfish, tuna and roosterfish with us, Tocumen (Copa’s hub) also received rave reviews. It was the 2nd place finisher (behind Japan’s Osaka International Airport) among medium-sized airports, with a remarkable 90.51% on-time departures and 90.32 on-time arrivals. For understandable reasons, none of the top-ranked large airports met those marks.
We continue to like Panama not only because of the exceptional fishing, service and safety, but also because of the relative ease of travel. There are tons of flights to Tocumen from all over the US at and rates generally seem to be the reasonable side. They’re also served by airlines under various loyalty programs, so if you fly primarily with one carrier there should be a way to earn or redeem miles.
Notes
On our second trip to Panama, we did run into a delay at the David airport headed home on Copa. It did impact the travel plans for several of our fellow travelers, but fortunately SFPIL uses a VIP service with an on-call travel agent. She got everyone rebooked with relative ease.
We’ve yet to fly Avianca, but they have direct flights to Guatemala City from our home airport of Washington-Dulles. They’re at odd times, but they tend to be super-cheap, so we might try them on our November 2024 trip to Casa Vieja Lodge.
Avianca also has direct flights from Bogota to Manaus, which may make them a viable carrier for some peacock bass anglers headed to the Amazon.
