News

Copa Airlines is reviving direct flights between Panama City and Denver, a key hub for the U.S. travel.

Copa will start four-day-a-week service from Denver in December, replacing service that United dropped last year. While the announcement is big news for Panama, providing a direct link to a major U.S. region, Denver officials also hailed the new connection to Panama and Latin America.

“In order for this city, this region, to be globally competitive, it must be globally connected,” Hancock said. He said the Copa flights will produce $26 million in annual economic impact for the city and create 244 new jobs, according to coverage in the Denver Business Journal.

The new Copa flights will leave Denver at 10:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays and arrive in Panama City the next morning at 6:05 a.m. The return flight will leave Panama City on the same days at 11:50 a.m. and arrive in Denver at 4:12 p.m.

Denver is a natural connection for Panama, providing convenient service for the northwest United States and Canada. About two-thirds of the passengers on the route will be leisure travelers, Copa estimates. But the flights will also open doors for new business opportunities for Denver companies.

“We expect the addition of Denver, our newest U.S. destination, to generate business and leisure travel not only between Colorado and Panama, but also to our more than 55 destinations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron said in a statement.

The new Copa flights will be more successful than the United flights for several reasons, Patrick Heck, DIA chief commercial officer, told the Business Journal. For one, Copa has more regional connections than United, giving travelers more options. Copa is also timing its flights to make connecting flights much easier, he said. United was more focused on the schedule of Denver connections, Heck said.

Copa, which flies to 73 destinations, has been aggressively expanding in the last year, as it looks to establish the expanding Tocumen International Airport as the “hub of the Americas.”