Copa Airlines informations and photos

Compañía Panameña de Aviación, S.A., (commonly referred to as Copa and branded simply as "Copa Airlines") is the flag carrier of Panama. It is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, with its main hub at Tocumen International Airport. Copa is a subsidiary of Copa Holdings, S.A. as well as a member of Star Alliance. The airline is also the main operator and owner of Colombian airline AeroRepública, currently known as Copa Airlines Colombia.

Copa was founded in 1947 and it began domestic operations to three cities in Panama shortly afterwards. The airline then abandoned its domestic flights in 1980, in favor of international flights. In 1998, Copa formed a partnership with Continental Airlines, adopting a new brand image and the OnePass frequent flyer program and later replaced by MileagePlus, which was replaced by ConnectMiles in July 2015.

The airline was established as Compañía Panameña de Aviación (hence the acronym COPA) on June 21, 1944, and started operations on August 15, 1947. It was founded by a group of prominent Panamanian investors with assistance from Pan American World Airways, who took a 32% stake. It began operating domestic flights with a small fleet of Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The airline started its first international flights in the early 1970s, with services to cities in Jamaica, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Turboprop aircraft operated by Copa included the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 and Lockheed L-188 Electra.

Until the early 1980s, the airline had significant competition from Air Panamá Internacional, which had a higher profile. Copa discontinued domestic flights in 1980 and acquired its first jet, a Boeing 737-100. Today the airline operates flights to a number of destinations in the U.S. and Canada including Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Denver (DEN), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Montreal (YUL), New Orleans (MSY), New York City (JFK), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO), Tampa (TPA), Toronto (YYZ), and Washington, D.C. (IAD) as well as to other destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America. Until the introduction of the Embraer 190 in 2005, the airline had an all-Boeing 737 fleet.

Expansion continued during the 1990s, when it began service to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Bogotá, Colombia; Havana, Cuba; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Mexico City, Mexico; Caracas, Venezuela; and many other important Latin American cities.

In 1992 Copa Airlines signed a strategic alliance with TACA Airlines (now Avianca El Salvador), and the airline began flying from Tocumen International Airport, making it the first flight connection center in Latin America. As a result, Tocumen was dubbed as the “Hub of the Americas” and several Latin American airlines such as LACSA of Costa Rica, Aviateca of Guatemala, and NICA of Nicaragua joined the alliance. The alliance ended in 1998 when the six-year agreement expired.

In 1998 Continental Airlines acquired 49% of the airline, marking the beginning of a comprehensive marketing and operating alliance. On May 19, 1999, Continental increased its stake to 51%. Since then, Copa has adopted a livery and corporate logo similar to Continental's (now United). Copa participated in the OnePass frequent flyer program until Continental's merger with United Airlines. In connection with the initial public offering in December 2005, Continental reduced its stake to approximately 27.3% and through a follow-on offering in 2006, further reduced it to approximately 10%.

In 2000, Copa Airlines inaugurated service to Los Angeles, Cancún, and Orlando, as well as to São Paulo; in 2001, it began service to Quito, Ecuador. In 2004, it began service to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Copa also announced in August of that year a codeshare agreement with Mexico's Mexicana de Aviación, which lasted until 2007.

On June 1, 2005, Copa Airlines acquired 90% of the Colombian domestic air carrier AeroRepública, having earlier announced a codeshare plan with the carrier. Copa rebranded AeroRepública to Copa Airlines Colombia in 2010, increased destinations and modernized the fleet. On December 15, 2005, parent company Copa Holdings, S.A., launched an IPO of 14 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange thus becoming the fourth Latin American airline to be traded on the exchange, after LAN Airlines of Chile and Brazilian carriers Gol Transportes Aéreos and TAM Airlines.

In 2006, Copa Airlines began service to six new destinations: Manaus, Brazil; Maracaibo, Venezuela;
Montevideo, Uruguay; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. In addition, Copa Airlines took delivery of six Embraer 190s and two Boeing 737s. In 2007, Copa Airlines added services to Córdoba, Argentina; Guadalajara, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Washington, D.C. Copa Airlines added four Embraer 190s and two Boeing 737s (-800 series). That same year, the airline joined the SkyTeam alliance as an associate member.

During 2008, Copa Airlines added five new destinations and received four Embraer 190s and one Boeing 737-800. The new destinations are Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Valencia, Venezuela; Oranjestad, Aruba; and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. In May 2008, Continental Airlines sold its remaining 4.38 million shares of Copa Airlines for $35.75 a share, yielding a net profit of approximately $149.8 million.

That same year, Copa Airlines' CEO Pedro Heilbron announced on the ALTA airline leaders forum in Cancún that the airline had decided to leave SkyTeam and were in exclusive talks with Star Alliance.

In 2009, Copa Airlines announced it would withdraw from SkyTeam on October 24, the same date that partner Continental Airlines left the alliance. The company added two Boeing 737-800s. and announced a firm order for 13 Boeing 737-800s with the new Boeing signature "Sky Interior".

In 2010, Copa Airlines began service to St. Maarten, received nine Boeing 737-800s and announced that it would join Star Alliance in mid-2012 to rejoin old partner Continental Airlines (now United) and become the first Latin American airline to join the alliance. That same year, Copa Airlines announced a firm order to purchase 32 Boeing 737-800 planes valued at $1.7 billion, thus becoming the largest plane order in the airline's history. The Boeing 737-800 are set for delivery between 2015 and 2018, with an option to acquire ten additional 737-800 aircraft.

In 2011, Copa Airlines began service to Toronto; Brasilia and Porto Alegre, Brazil; Chicago; Cúcuta, Colombia; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Monterrey, Mexico and Asunción, Paraguay; and Nassau, The Bahamas. It also passed from a four bank hub to a six bank hub and increased frequencies to several destinations.[clarification needed]

That same year, Copa Airlines launched a mobile version of its website (m.copaair.com), giving passengers the chance to get a mobile pass and check flight status and other services. Additionally, the airline announced a new codeshare agreement with TAME, which became effective in January 2012. Copa Airlines also became the first airline in Latin America to have the new Boeing 737-800NG Sky Interior with improved performance in its fleet.

In 2012, the company announced five new destinations: Las Vegas, United States; Recife, Brazil; Willemstad, Curaçao; Liberia, Costa Rica; and Iquitos, Peru. In June of the same year, Copa Airlines became an official member of Star Alliance along with AviancaTaca.

Copa also increased flight frequencies to several destinations and inaugurated an interline agreement with Air Panama (Panama's second-largest airline) which consists of the linkage of all tourist destinations in Panama with those in Latin America. The agreement became effective June 1, 2012, when Air Panama began flights from Tocumen airport to Isla Colón, Bocas del Toro.

In 2013, Copa increased the frequency to several destinations and included two new destinations in the United States: Boston and Tampa.

Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) announced on 10 October 2013, that Copa Airlines placed an order to retrofit some of its existing Boeing Next Generation 737s' blended winglets with APB's new split scimitar winglets, as part of its environmental strategy. The new APB winglet technology will save Copa more than $21 million in jet fuel costs fleetwide and more than 63,000 tons of carbon dioxide CO2 outputs per year.

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