LONDON, 23 January 2019: Star Alliance member Copa Airlines will expand its network in South America with a new nonstop flight connecting Suriname with its Panama City hub.
The carrier will initially operate the route to Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (PBM) in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 July, using a Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Copa Airlines currently has an average of 350 daily flights through its hub at Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City, connecting more than 80 cities in 32 countries.
Suriname, once known as Dutch Guiana, is one of South America’s smallest countries and was granted independence from the Netherlands in 1975. With a population of about 560,000, the country’s main gateway is Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, which offers flights to Amsterdam via KLM, TUI fly Netherlands and Surinam Airways.
Confirmation of Copa Airlines’ new route to Suriname comes just weeks after the airline finalised a three-way joint business agreement (JBA) with US carrier United Airlines and Avianca of Colombia on US-Latin America routes.
The three Star Alliance members said the agreement would enable passengers from 19 countries, excluding Brazil, to access flights from more than 12,000 cities. It will also allow the launch of new nonstop routes and increased frequencies on existing services.
Regulatory approval for the venture is expected to take between 12 and 18 months. The three carriers plan to apply for approval and an accompanying grant of antitrust immunity from the US Department of Transportation and other regulatory agencies “in the near term”.
Although the current deal excludes Brazil, the airlines said they were “exploring the possibility” of adding Brazil to the JBA following the recently concluded open skies deal between the US and Brazil.
