Copa Airlines will operate from June 22 at the new terminal of the Tocumen International Airport, the main airport in the country and an important regional connection hub, being the airline that will inaugurate the so-called T2.
Starting next Wednesday, all Copa international operations with origin and final destination in Panama will take place in the new Tocumen T2, reported the Panamanian flag carrier.
Passengers on domestic and international Copa flights will carry out their check-in and baggage registration in T2, and then go through the migration and security process in the same terminal.
Copa passengers with a final destination of Panama must go through the migration and customs process also at T2, regardless of the gate at which the flight arrived, the company added in a statement released this Wednesday.
The executive president of Copa Airlines, Pedro Heilbron, stated that the new terminal “is an important component to continue strengthening the competitiveness of the so-called Hub of the Americas, “the most important connection center in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
“Undoubtedly, the greater capacity to continue growing and the new experience that all passengers who depart, arrive or pass through this terminal, whether from Copa Airlines or other airlines, will enjoy will translate into benefits for the country,” added Heilbron.
Copa Airlines reported that in T2 it is expanding its service capacity, with “38 counters for passenger and baggage registration distributed in a large, modern and comfortable space of more than 1,500 square meters”, as well as the incorporation of “22 self-service kiosks that will facilitate the check-in process for flights.
Copa will be the first airline to operate from the new T2, and later KLM, United Airlines and Air France will do so, informed the Tocumen administration.
T2 TRIPLE THE CAPACITY OF TOCUMEN
The general manager of the Tocumen International Airport, SA, Raffoul Arab, assured that the immigration and customs areas of T2 triple the capacity of Terminal 1 (T1).
This Wednesday the “safety and efficiency tests on the electrical backup systems that offer general support” were carried out on both T1 and T2, while on Tuesday others were carried out on the Baggage Handling System (BHS, for its acronym in English).
T2 will be able to mobilize up to 12,000 bags per hour compared to 1,800 in T1 through a BHS that has state-of-the-art security equipment that can detect if the luggage contains prohibited products or objects that may be dangerous, according to official information.
The new T2 is a 116,000 square meter building that expands the airport’s passenger admission capacity from 12 to 25 million annually, according to official information.
This work of more than 900 million dollars by Odebrecht, will begin formal operations next Wednesday in the midst of a contractual dispute between the Tocumen administration and the construction company, the latter company the epicenter of an international corruption scandal for which it paid a fine of 2,600 million dollars in the United States.
In Panama, Odebrecht promised to pay a fine of 220 million dollars to the State within 12 years.
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