This was brought up in the Washington, DC thread, but I felt it was worthy of its own thread. Service will operate 4x weekly, on M/W/Sa/Su using a 738 beginning 18 June.

Copa currently serves IAD-PTY 19x/weekly.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn4a3eLtDH9/?hl=en

Nice for BWI

SeaDoo wrote:

Nice for BWI

And Manta, Ecuador too.

Chele737 wrote:

SeaDoo wrote:

Nice for BWI

And Manta, Ecuador too.

Nice! My family can just about fill up one plane load.....

From the WAS thread

N737ER wrote:

BWIAirport wrote:

Copa starting BWI 4x weekly on June 28. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cn4a3eLtDH9/

Mon, Wed, Sat, Sun
CM708 - Dep PTY 907 Arr BWI 1507
CM709 - Dep BWI 1622 Arr PTY 2022

I don't see any indication that it's a seasonal service, so I'm guessing it's year-round?

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

dcajet wrote:

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

stewartg wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

PTY is all about connections. It is CM's bread and butter.

stewartg wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

Cubsrule wrote:

stewartg wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

57 minutes is par for the course @ PTY with COPA, and that is including a secondary safety inspection when flying to the US.

dcajet wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

stewartg wrote:

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

57 minutes is par for the course @ PTY with COPA, and that is including a secondary safety inspection when flying to the US.

I know. But coming from a smaller airport on a newer (to the airport) carrier, it would give me some heartburn. A 30 or 40 minute departure delay that would be no big deal on a different itinerary might well bust the connection.

Cubsrule wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

57 minutes is par for the course @ PTY with COPA, and that is including a secondary safety inspection when flying to the US.

I know. But coming from a smaller airport on a newer (to the airport) carrier, it would give me some heartburn. A 30 or 40 minute departure delay that would be no big deal on a different itinerary might well bust the connection.

I have done 45min connex @ PTY for years. They worked as long as you are inside T1. Not sure if traversing all of Tocumen from North to South will still work. Then again, the ongoing flights usually hang on for a few minutes for stragglers from late inbound flights.

Back to the point, I strongly believe the MEC market is 99% NYmetro area. Someone needs to call Mr Heilbron...

Cubsrule wrote:

stewartg wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Schedules for the Manta operation, eff 27JUN

CM706 PTY 15:10 MEC 17:28 73G 257
CM707 MEC 18:18 PTY 20:30 73G 257

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

It will work perfectly for JFK.
CM803 arrives PTY just in time for the SA bank at 1500s
MEC-PTY is timed perfectly for the CM808 going back to JFK

shaq wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

stewartg wrote:

The diaspora is in NY/NJ/CT. Can this flight still make connections to and from JFK?

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

It will work perfectly for JFK.
CM803 arrives PTY just in time for the SA bank at 1500s
MEC-PTY is timed perfectly for the CM808 going back to JFK

CM803 is scheduled to arrive at 1442. That’s not a legal connection to MEC.

Please keep the thread on topic. This thread isn't about where people want Copa to fly, it's about where they are actually going to fly. For speculative discussion, please create a separate thread.

✈️ atcsundevil

As previously commented in the Central American aviation thread, CM PTY-BWI may work as back-up for CM PTY-IAD which is operating as 2-3x daily nowadays.
CM could have identified that a sizeable proportion of these passengers are coming from Baltimore area.
They're actually utilizing this same pattern, in other stations within its network.

It's going to be interesting to see how long MEC sticks around, considering the only other flights at the moment are to UIO. It's probably not orientated towards JFK travellers...

hpff wrote:

It's going to be interesting to see how long MEC sticks around, considering the only other flights at the moment are to UIO. It's probably not orientated towards JFK travellers.

It's like asking how CM PTY-CIX 2x weekly is loading passengers, taking into account that CIX-LIM is the sole commercial route for Chiclayo, Peru.
Based on the business model of Copa Airlines, allowing one lonely hub placed in the middle of the continent, the intended CM PTY-MEC should be loaded with five passengers coming from JFK, five from MIA, five from MEX, five from GUA, five from IAD, five from YYZ, five from SDQ, five from HAV, five from SJO and so forth.
It's the same situation for the upcoming CM PTY-BWI: this flight would be packed with people arriving from their different destinations through PTY and heading for Baltimore.

Regards.

Presumably no one is planning on connecting to a BWI departure.

SJOtoLIR wrote:

hpff wrote:

It's going to be interesting to see how long MEC sticks around, considering the only other flights at the moment are to UIO. It's probably not orientated towards JFK travellers.

It's like asking how CM PTY-CIX 2x weekly is loading passengers, taking into account that CIX-LIM is the sole commercial route for Chiclayo, Peru.
Based on the business model of Copa Airlines, allowing one lonely hub placed in the middle of the continent, the intended CM PTY-MEC should be loaded with five passengers coming from JFK, five from MIA, five from MEX, five from GUA, five from IAD, five from YYZ, five from SDQ, five from HAV, five from SJO and so forth.
It's the same situation for the upcoming CM PTY-BWI: this flight would be packed with people arriving from their different destinations through PTY and heading for Baltimore.

Regards.

I have roots in the MEC area so I can speak with some degree of confidence. The diaspora is the NY metro area. So 90% of the MEC traffic, I expect will originate from JFK. These pax currently have to land in GYE and drive 3hrs to the MEC area. The remaining traffic will be MEC holidaymakers up to FLA and NY. Also, the academic calendar in MEC follows the Southern Cone season. So children are on vacation Jan-Mar. On the other hand, ex US are on holiday Jun-Aug as we know.

I think it will be sustainable if they keep a light schedule of 3x a week with added frequencies at Xmas. They could potentially steal traffic from AA, LATAM and AV.

SJOtoLIR wrote:

hpff wrote:

It's going to be interesting to see how long MEC sticks around, considering the only other flights at the moment are to UIO. It's probably not orientated towards JFK travellers.

It's like asking how CM PTY-CIX 2x weekly is loading passengers, taking into account that CIX-LIM is the sole commercial route for Chiclayo, Peru.
Based on the business model of Copa Airlines, allowing one lonely hub placed in the middle of the continent, the intended CM PTY-MEC should be loaded with five passengers coming from JFK, five from MIA, five from MEX, five from GUA, five from IAD, five from YYZ, five from SDQ, five from HAV, five from SJO and so forth.
It's the same situation for the upcoming CM PTY-BWI: this flight would be packed with people arriving from their different destinations through PTY and heading for Baltimore.

Regards.

Agreed completely - I'm just curious to see whether MEC can sustain 3x/week to an international hub at this point or even if frequency will be increased. Looks like Manta has started some tax breaks for the local tourism industry.

stewartg wrote:

They could potentially steal traffic from AA, LATAM and AV.

Copa Airlines has indeed demonstrated how some secondary cities like Chiclayo may work profitably into its network.
In my view, CM PTY-MEC makes a resemblance to CM PTY-CIX as pointing out above.
On the contrary, some segments like LP LIM-SFO and AV BOG-ORD couldn't fly sustainibly.
Good luck to Baltimore and Manta !

Regards.

Cubsrule wrote:

shaq wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

It's not a great schedule for connections to and from JFK. The northbound connection is legal IIRC but probably not advisable: 57 minutes. Southbound would be a 9-hour connection, as the morning JFK flight arrives too late to connect to MEC.

It will work perfectly for JFK.
CM803 arrives PTY just in time for the SA bank at 1500s
MEC-PTY is timed perfectly for the CM808 going back to JFK

CM803 is scheduled to arrive at 1442. That’s not a legal connection to MEC.

If JFK is the main feeder for this flight, believe me: they will re-time MEC.