Panama: Tocumen Terminal 2 to open despite contractor’s delays

Tocumen airport would still open despite the contractor’s delays. Four months after concluding the contractual period of the Tocumen International Airport Expansion Program, the concessionaire is considering opening Terminal 2 for the first four months of 2022.

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However, the contractor Construcciones Norberto Odebrecht S.A. (CNO) presents notable delays and poor performance in the correction of slopes, guarantees, and other non-executed activities that correspond to the original scope of Contract N°038/12.

According to the contractor, as of February 2020, the works of Terminal 2 of Tocumen International Airport are more than 99% complete. However, works that are key for the airport operation have not been completed.

Terminal 2 will open in a few weeks

In spite of the contractor’s non-compliance, the plan for Terminal 2 to start operations in the first four months of the year is being executed.

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The General Manager of Tocumen International Airport, S.A. Raffoul Arab indicated: «We are in the obligation to put into production a work that has cost 917 million dollars to the Panamanian people. It is urgent to integrate it into the plans of President Laurentino Cortizo and his government, for the country’s economic recovery and tourism.»

The Manager added that a large part of the facilities are usable and safe, but he will not waive the right to receive the entire work at 100%, according to the contract.

Tocumen S.A. reiterates that it maintains unchanged its purpose of protecting the best interests of the State, and will continue to exercise the legal resources allowed by Law, to achieve the conclusion of Terminal 2, to total satisfaction.

Terminal 2 is a 116,000 square meter building with 20 boarding gates and a capacity to handle 20 million passengers per year or 54 thousand travelers per day. The terminal shows clear delays when it began construction in 2013, given that it should have been delivered in 2017 initially.

Current operations at Tocumen

The airport is the main base for Copa Airlines, which has flights to Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE), Cordoba (COR), Mendoza (MDZ) and Rosario (ROS) in Argentina;

Oranjestad (AUA) in Aruba;

Nassau (NAS) in Bahamas;

Belize City (BZE) in Belize;

Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI) in Bolivia;

Belo Horizonte (CNF), Brasilia (BSB), Manaus (MAO), Porto Alegre (POA), Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and São Paulo (GRU) in Brazil;

Montreal (YUL) and Toronto (YYZ) in Canada; Armenia (AXM), Barranquilla (BAQ), Bogota (BOG), Bucaramanga (BGA), Cali (CLO), Cartagena (CTG), Cucuta (CUC), Medellin/Rionegro (MDE), Pereira (PEI) and San Andres (ADZ) in Colombia;

San José (SJO) in Costa Rica;

Havana (HAV) and Santa Clara (SNU) in Cuba;

Willemstad (CUR) in Curaçao;

San Salvador (SAL) in El Salvador; Guayaquil (GYE) and Quito (UIO) in Ecuador;

Atlanta (ATL), Chicago (ORD), Denver (DEN), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Los Angeles (LAX), Las Vegas (LAS), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO), Tampa (TPA) and Washington/Dulles (IAD) in the United States;

Guatemala City (GUA) in Guatemala;

Georgetown (GEO) in Guyana;

San Pedro Sula (SAP) and Tegucigalpa/Palmerola (XPL) in Honduras;

Montego Bay (MBJ) and Kingston (KIN) in Jamaica;

Cancun (CUN), Mexico City (MEX), Guadalajara (GDL) and Monterrey (MTY) in Mexico; Managua (MGA) in Nicaragua;

David (DAV) in Panama;

Asunción (ASU) in Paraguay;

Chiclayo (CIX) and Lima (LIM) in Peru;

San Juan (SJU) in Puerto Rico;

Punta Cana (PUJ) and Santo Domingo/Las Americas in the Dominican Republic;

Paramaribo (PMB) in Suriname;

Port of Spain (POS) in Trinidad and Tobago;

Montevideo (MVD) in Uruguay;

Caracas (CCS), Maracaibo (MAR) and Valencia (VLN) in Venezuela.

In 2021 Copa Holdings carried 6.13 million passengers, 41.4% lower than in 2019 but more than double the figure recorded in 2020, the worst year of the pandemic, when just 2.85 million passengers were carried.

The Panamanian also shares operations with other companies:

Air Europa (Madrid),

Air France (Paris),

American Airlines (Miami),

Avianca (Bogota and San Salvador),

Avior Airlines (Caracas),

Conviasa (Caracas, Managua and Maracaibo),

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando),

Estelar (Caracas),

Iberia (Madrid),

KLM (Amsterdam),

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale),

Turkish Airlines (Istanbul),

United Airlines (Newark and Houston),

Venezuelan RAVSA (Caracas and Maracaibo)

Wingo (Bogota, Cali, Cartagena, Medellin and San Jose, Costa Rica).

The distribution of passengers transiting through the Hub of the Americas was as follows: South America in first place with 44.7% of passengers followed by North America (31.5%), Central America (10.1%), the Caribbean (9.1%), and Europe (4.6%).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)