Tocumen International Airport, the largest in Panama and one of the most important in Latin America and the Caribbean, saw 1,196,856 passengers pass through its corridors during the month of December 2021. This implies an increase of 107,083 passengers in relation to the previous month and consolidates a figure of 9,163,998 passengers throughout 2021, recovering 55% of the movement registered in 2019, prior to the pandemic, when 16,582,601 passengers passed. In 2020, levels of barely 30% had been reached.
Official data from the airport operator, Tocumen S.A., reflect that in the second half of 2021 the rate of recovery of operations and passenger traffic was maintained. «The results for December and for the year 2021, in general, exceed our initial projections,» said the General Manager of Tocumen International Airport, Raffoul Arab Pinzón.
However, the executive pointed to the caution required by the ever-present «threat of COVID 19, which requires us to be disciplined in the administration of the terminal.»
Tocumen International Airport closed in 2021 with 21 active airlines and around 81% of the 90 destinations it connected to, before the pandemic, operational. The distribution of passengers who passed through the Hub of the Americas was as follows: South America in first place with 44.7% of the passage followed by North America (31.5%), Central America (10.1%), the Caribbean (9.1% ), and Europe (4.6%). The favorite tourist destinations from Panama were Miami, Cancun, and Bogotá.
Regarding cargo movement, Tocumen registered 21,401 tons in December and a total of 202,743 metric tons in all of 2021.
