BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE

Alliance airlines in talks with Panama carrier while rival group looks to replace Mexicana

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PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC

Airline will expand services to the USA, and hopes to benefit from Continental link

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Brazil’s low-cost carrier GOL is expanding its international presence by codesharing with Panama’s COPA Airlines. In the first phase, COPA is carrying GOL’s code on COPA flights between Panama and Brazil, and GOL carries COPA’s code on all its flights within Brazil from the gateways of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

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Copa Airlines have announced the beginning of direct flights to the city of Rio de Janeiro, starting November 15. “With the addition of flights to the city of Rio de Janeiro, Copa Airlines continues to strengthen its position in the region and the success of our Hub of the Americas, the main hub in Latin America for both business and leisure travelers,” said Jorge Garcia Icaza, Commercial Vice President of Copa Airlines. “This new flight provides more direct connections between this major Brazilian city and North America, Central America and the Caribbean,” he added. Copa will operate Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft on the new route. The flight, to be operated five times a week, will depart from Panama City at 19:11 and arrive in Rio de Janeiro at 04:02 the following morning. Copa Airlines offers services to other destinations in Brazil, including a twice-daily service to Sao Paulo and since July 2006, a daily direct flight to Manaus. In addition to the new Brazilian destinations of Manaus and Rio, Copa began flights to four other cities in Latin America between July and August of this year: Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; Maracaibo, Venezuela; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Montevideo, Uruguay.

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Panama, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Panama´s Copa Airlines will make seven more direct flights to Cuba, Cuban Civil Aeronautics Authority (AAP) announced Wednesday. In its release, the AAP said the initiative emerged during the recent bilateral talks in Havana, and will be implemented as soon as possible. The source noted Cuba has agreed to increase weekly Panama City-Havana flights from 14 to 21, given the high demand of the route. The idea will become reality once the two sides write the corresponding diplomatic notes, AAP indicated.

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Panamanian Copa Airlines has announced that it will begin direct flights to Maracaibo (Venezuela) with six flights a week, starting July 24, 2006. Maracaibo is Venezuela’s second largest city and the capital of the state of Zulia, the most important oil-producing state. This year, the company will also be initiating flight service to Manaus, Brazil, and Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic on July 15; to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on July 24; to Montevideo, Uruguay, on August 15; and in the last quarter of the year, to Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. “We are pleased to offer our passengers six new destinations and are moving forward with our plans for the airline’s growth in the region,” said Jorge Garcia, Commercial vice president of Copa Airlines. “Passengers will be able to continue making their connections quickly and efficiently to numerous destinations serviced by Copa in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean through our Hub of the Americas in Panama,” he added. “This flight will depart from Panama every day except Friday at 7:58 p.m., arriving in Maracaibo at 10:30 p.m. The return flight will depart Maracaibo every day except Saturday at 8:35 a.m., and will arrive in Panama at 9:15 a.m.”

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SAO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes (NYSE: GOL - News; Bovespa: GOLL4), Brazil’s low-cost, low-fare airline, announces that it will start operating daily flights between Brazil and Panama, made possible through the Company’s code-share agreement with Copa Airlines. Through the previous agreement the two companies operated only four flights per week. The agreement, signed in August 2005, aims to offer more flights and connection options between Brazil and Panama, including several points across the Americas, through the Hub de las Americas — a direct flight distribution center located at Tocumen International Airport, in Panama City, which serves 30 destinations in 20 countries.

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KLM has announced plans to launch flights from Amsterdam to Panama next summer, providing the only direct link to Central America’s fastest growing economy from northern Europe.
The Dutch national airline will fly non-stop to Panama City Tocumen airport from its Amsterdam Schiphol base three times a week from March 30.
A total of 294 seats - 24 in world business class and 270 in economy - will be available on KLM’s services to the Panama.
The new route will offer numerous connections from Panama City thanks to KLM’s close ties with Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines, a fellow member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Copa offer flights from Panama to an extensive range of Latin American destinations that currently have no direct links to Europe, including Cartagena in Colombia and the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

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KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has revealed that it will begin direct flights to Panama from summer 2008.

The carrier will fly non-stop to Panama City Tocumen airport from its Amsterdam Schiphol base three times a week from 30 March.

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check out this cool little graph of the growth of the world’s shipping fleet since 1948, based on the Lloyds of London ship registry.

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