Copa, Iberia Increase Tourist Traffic

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COPA, the Panamanian airline, has announced non-stop service from Panama City to four new destinations, including Liberia, Guanacaste province in Costa Rica, to begin June 24.

Almost simultaneously, the Spanish carrier Iberia announced that it is increasing its number of seats on the Madrid-San Jose route by 5.5% to 234,000 by using A340-600 jetliners with 100 more seats.

The move is part of COPA's strategic plan to increase its access for passenger connecting or departing from Panama City's Tocumen International to 63 destinations in 39 countries of North, Central and South America. COPA is adding 10 new Boeing 737-800 jetliners to reach 83 aircraft.

In addition to Liberia's new terminal (finally open after delays by the contractor) the airline will open destination is Recife (Brazil), Las Vegas, Nev., and the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean.

COPA announced that last year the company transported more than 8.8 million passengers, a 20% increase over 2010. COPA CEO Pedro Heilbron said the airline intends to add new destinations this year and is aiming at carrying 10 million passengers.

During the FITUR tourism trade fair two weeks ago in Madrid, Costa Rica's Tourism Minister Allan Flores applauded the company's decision, calling it "wonderful news."

Iberia holds a 43% share of Europe-Costa Rica traffic, while its business class share is 60%. Last year, the company carried 186,000 passengers on the Madrid-San Jose route. More than three-quarters of them made connections to or from other cities in Spain or the rest of Europe, most notably France, Italy and Germany.

The only company with uninterrupted service between Europe and Central America for the past 40 years, Iberia also operates direct flights to Guatemala, Panama and San Salvador.