Panama

Compañía Panameña de Aviación, S.A. is the flag carrier of Panama. It is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, with its main hub at Tocumen International Airport. It operates more than 326 daily scheduled flights to 72 destinations in 30 countries around North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Copa is a subsidiary of Copa Holdings, S.A. as well as a member of the Star Alliance. The airline is also the main operator and owner of Colombian airline AeroRepública, currently known as Copa Airlines Colombia. Copa was founded in 1947 as the national airline of Panama and it began domestic operations to three cities in Panama shortly afterwards. The airline then abandoned its domestic flights in 1980, in favor of international flights. In 1998, Copa formed a strategic partnership with Continental Airlines, adopting a new brand image and the OnePass frequent flyer program, later replaced by MileagePlus (will be replaced by ConnectMiles in July 2015). As of 2013, Copa Airlines employed over 9,000 people, most of them residing in Panama and was one of the fastest growing and largest companies in the country. It is headed by Chief Executive Officer Pedro Heilbron. The airline was established as Compañía Panameña de Aviación (hence the acronym COPA) on June 21, 1944, and started operations on August 15, 1947. It was founded by a group of prominent Panamanian investors with assistance from Pan American World Airways, who took a 32% stake. It began operating domestic flights with a small fleet of Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The airline started its first international flights in the early 1970s, with services to cities in Jamaica, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Until the early 1980s, the airline had significant competition from Air Panamá Internacional, which had a higher profile. Copa discontinued domestic flights in 1980 and acquired its first jet, a Boeing 737-100. Today, the airline operates flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as to the Dominican Republic and Miami, Florida. Until the introduction of the Embraer 190 in 2005, the airline had an all-Boeing 737 fleet. Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) announced 10 October 2013, that Copa Airlines placed an order to retrofit some of its existing Boeing Next Generation 737's Blended Winglets with APB's new Split Scimitar Winglets, as part of its environmental strategy. The new APB winglet technology will save Copa more than $21 million in jet fuel costs fleetwide and more than 63,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) outputs per year. In January 2014, Copa Airlines announced three new destinations and revealed its business strategy for the year, which included the delivery of eight new Boeing 737-800 aircraft and the increase of flight frequencies to some destinations. The new destinations are Montreal, Canada; Fort Lauderdale, United States and Georgetown, Guyana. In July, it added Campinas, Brazil; and Santa Clara, Cuba. In April 2014, Copa Airlines became the first airline in Latin America and the third in the world to implement the Split Scimitar Winglets on its Boeing 737 NG fleet. In April 2015, the airline announced an order for 61 Boeing 737 MAX 8/9 aircraft worth$6.6 billion at list price. The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of narrow-body medium-range twin-engine jet airliners produced by Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer. Launched at the Paris Air Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the aircraft series has been a commercial success. The aircraft is used by both mainline and regional airlines around the world. As of 31 December 2013, there is a backlog of 279 firm orders for the E-Jets, 689 options and 998 units delivered. The E-190/195 models are a larger stretch of the E-170/175 models fitted with a new, larger wing, larger horizontal stabilizer and a new engine, the GE CF34-10E, rated at 18,500 lb (82.30 kN). These aircraft compete with the Bombardier CRJ-1000 and CS100, the Boeing 717-200 and 737-600, and the Airbus A318. It can carry 100 passengers in a two-class configuration or 124 in single-class high density configuration. The first flight of the E-190 was on March 12, 2004 (PP-XMA), with the first flight of the E-195 (PP-XMJ) on December 7 of the same year. The launch customer of the E-190 was New York-based low-cost carrier JetBlue with 100 orders and 100 options. British low-cost carrier Flybe launched the E-195 with 14 orders and 12 options. As the 190/195 models are of mainline aircraft size, many airlines operate them as such, fitting them with a business class section and operating them themselves, instead of having them flown by a regional airline partner. For example, Air Canada operates 45 E-190 aircraft fitted with 9 business-class and 88 economy-class seats as part of its primary fleet. JetBlue and US Airways also operate the E-190 as part of their own fleet thus allowing airlines increased crewing flexibility by having the ability of air crews to work aboard narrow-body or widebody aircraft all the same.

• published: 01 May 2015
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