The president of the Institute for Tourism Promotion of Salta, in northern Argentina, Manuela Arancibia, announced that during 2023 Copa Airlines will resume its flights between Panama and the provincial capital, which were suspended when the pandemic broke out.
This news was announced during a visit that Arancibia and the Argentine ambassador in Panama, Marcelo Leucco, made to Copa’s headquarters in Panama City, where the airline said that Salta is included in the strategic planning for 2023 as a destination to operate in the Southern Cone. Copa was represented by the Senior Director of Planning and Alliances, Gabriel Varela, and the Director of Government Relations, María Luisa Navarro.
♥️🖤♥️BUENAS NOTICIAS! En el 2023 vuelve el vuelo Panamá/Salta! 🇵🇦🇦🇷
Junto al Embajador Argentino en Panamá Marcelo Lucco visitamos la sede central de Copa Airlines donde fuimos recibidos por directivos importantes de la empresa que nos confirmaron esta excelente noticia ✈️ pic.twitter.com/8vIPJ130Bl
— Manuela Arancibia (@ManuArancibiaok) January 18, 2023
«The work of Inprotur Salta together with its national counterpart, the Foreign Ministry and Argentine embassies has allowed us to advance in this type of connectivity actions but also in international tourism promotion, all of which is key for tourism to continue growing and for more and more people to choose our destination,» said Manuela Arancibia.
See also: Copa Holdings reports earnings of USD 115.9 million in the third quarter
Ambassador Lucco said that they have been working «for quite some time with Governor Saenz and his team to recover this route that operated until the pandemic in Salta. Its return to activity will be a fundamental bridge to be able to receive tourists from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Panama directly».
Copa Airlines inaugurated its flights between Panama and Salta in December 2018 as part of the expansion process in Argentina boosted from 2016 when it also landed in Rosario and Mendoza.
Until March 2020 the airline operated two weekly flights between Panama City and Salta on Boeing 737-700 aircraft, with an offer of 496 seats. In 2019, the route had mobilized 20 thousand passengers.
Copa Airlines currently operates 49 weekly flights to Argentina: 28 between Panama and Buenos Aires, and one daily flight to Cordoba, Mendoza and Rosario, totaling a weekly offer of 7,870 seats each way, 24.5% higher than in January 2020, according to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium.
The preliminary report of the National Civil Aviation Administration of Argentina indicates that between January and December 2022 Copa Airlines mobilized 497 thousand passengers between Panama and Argentina, which represents a recovery of 83% compared to 2019. The load factor reached 90%, two points higher than in 2019.
