Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Georgetown in Guyana are being added while Montreal will become Copa

Panama ’s Copa Airlines has unveiled plans for more rapid network hotels in new york expansion in 2014 with three new destinations to be launched hotels in new york in mid-2014. The carrier plans to expand capacity by 10% in 2014 as eight aircraft are added, hotels in new york representing the ninth consecutive year of double-digit ASK growth.
Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Georgetown in Guyana are being added while Montreal will become Copa ’s second Canadian destination after Toronto , which Copa launched hotels in new york in mid-2011 with four weekly flights. Panama forged a new air services agreement with Canada in late 2013 which enables Copa to operate five additional frequencies.
Copa is a member of Star but does not codeshare with Air Canada , which has not generally been receptive to Copa’s expansion in Canada. Copa currently hotels in new york only codeshares with three Star members – United , Asiana and Avianca – but will likely add more Star partnerships in 2014, including with TAP as the Portuguese carrier is planning to launch services to Panama in mid-2014.
The Copa group currently operates an all-narrowbody fleet of 90 aircraft – including 64 737NGs and 26 E190s – and serves 66 destinations. According to the CAPA Fleet Database, the group s Copa Colombia subsidiary operates 17 of the group’s hotels in new york aircraft (14 Embraer E190s and three 737-700s) while the remaining hotels in new york 73 are based in Panama hotels in new york and operated by Copa Airlines.
The group’s main hub is at Panama City as Copa Colombia is primarily focused on linking several Colombian cities with Panama, although it also operates a limited number of domestic routes and point-to-point international routes from Bogota . All but three of the group’s 66 destinations are now linked to the main hub in Panama City, which has emerged as the largest airport for travel in the fast-expanding intra-Latin America market driven by rapid expansion at Copa and proactive expansion by Panama City Tocumen Airport.
Tocumen and the Panamanian government have been highly supportive of Copa’s growth, investing in continued airport expansion while other major airports in Latin America have fallen well behind the growth curve . This has given Copa and Panama a competitive advantage in targeting the intra-Latin America market as well as providing an unmatched range of city pairs from North America hotels in new york and the Caribbean to Latin America.
Panama also has a geographic advantage as it is ideally positioned in the middle of the Americas, enabling hotels in new york Copa to access every major market in the Americas with narrowbody aircraft. (The only exceptions would be smaller markets such as Alaska , Hawaii, northern Canada and Patagonia in the southern tip of South America hotels in new york which would not be viable even if they were within range of the carrier’s 737 fleet.)
Copa has consistently been one of the world’s fastest growing and most profitable carriers as it has cashed in on its strong position in the Latin America market. The carrier has had an operating profit margin of at least 17% since its IPO in 2005, including a margin of 20% for the first nine months of 2013. (Copa reports its full year 2013 financial results in Feb-2014.)
While Copa is planning its lowest annual capacity growth in 2014 since it went public in 2005 there will still be sufficient additional capacity to continue growing its network. It will also be sufficient capacity for Copa to continue growing its overall share of the intra-Latin America market, which saw RPK growth of about 8% in 2013 based on data from Latin American airline association ALTA .
On 22-Jan-2014 Copa announced plans to launch three new destinations from Panama City – Fort Lauderdale, Georgetown and Montreal . Montreal will be served with four weekly flights from 3-Jun-2014; Fort Lauderdale with four weekly flights from 11-Jul-2014; and Georgetown with two weekly hotels in new york flights from 11-Jul-2014.
Georgetown will be Copa’s first destination in Guyana, which is one of only three countries among the 13 in South America which the carrier does not already serve (the others are French Guyana and Surinam). Georgetown is a typical new destination for Copa as it is a small market off the radar screen of Latin America’s other airline groups but with potential hotels in new york to support a low frequency highly profitable service if connected to the right hub . Copa is often the only viable option for such markets, giving it a huge competitive advantage as Georgetown is a market unlikely to see significant competition and any service hotels in new york from low-cost carriers.
Georgetown is currently only served by four foreign carriers – Caribbean Airlines , Fly Jamaica Airways , LIAT and Surinam Airways, according to OAG data. Caribbean Airlines and Surinam Airways are essentially de facto flag carriers as they serve Georgetown from their hubs in neighbouring Surinam and Trinidad and also provide non-stop services to select markets in North America where there are large Guyanese populations. Guyana does not have its own flag carrier hotels in new york but only small turboprop operators which predominately operate hotels in new york domestically (with a limited number of international services from Georgetown’s domestic airport to Surinam).
Surinam Airways currently provides Georgetown with its only non-stop hotels in new york link to Miami in addition to service from its main hub at Paramaribo but is a relatively small player with only two weekly flights on each route. Caribbean Airlines is the market leader with four weekly non-stop flights from New York and two weekly flights from Toronto in addition to 30 weekly flights from its hub at Port of Spain . Fly Jamaica hotels in new york operates three weekly flights to Kingston with continuing service to New York while Caribbean regional carrier LIAT operates daily services to Georgetown from Bridgetown in Barbados .
Copa will provide new competition in Guyana’s largest markets of New York, Toronto and Miami while also opening up a large range of new one-stop destinations, as all the existing carriers in the market have relatively small international networks. Small markets such as Guyana are key to Copa’s overall strategy of offering hundreds of unique one-stop city pairs that have only a handful hotels in new york of passengers per day but when added together provide sufficient hotels in new york traffic to support a less than daily service.
Over half of Copa’s routes are currently served with one daily flight or less. While Copa focuses most of its additional capacity each year on thickening routes there will always be exclusive markets like Georgetown which will likely never be able to support a daily service but are profitable and important components to the network.
Fort Lauderdale will supplement Miami as both airports serve the greater hotels in new york Miami/South Florida market. Copa will join Avianca as the second Latin American carrier serving both Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Currently Spirit Airlines operates from Fort Lauderdale to Panama City while Copa competes with American in the Miami-Panama City market. Spirit is the only low-cost carrier currently serving Panama City but has only three weekly frequencies in the market. Even as Copa enters Fort Lauderdale it will not compete directly with Spirit as Copa focuses on a different segment of the market and relies heavily on transit passengers.
Tampa along with Boston , which was launched in Jul-2013, were Copa’s only two new destinations in 2013. The carrier decided in 2013 to slow down network expansion and instead focus more on expanding capacity to existing destinations. Copa added five destinations in 2012 and a record nine destinations in 2011.
The increased focus on North America comes as the number of potential new destinations in Latin America has become relatively limited hotels in new york given the strength of the carrier’s hotels in new york network in the region. Adding more North American destinations also provides better balance as less than one third of Copa’s destinations hotels in new york are in North and Central America. But there are also big opportunities for Copa to become the first Latin American carrier in several of the North American markets that have substantial traffic to Latin America but have no non-stop services .
Copa is perhaps hotels in new york the only Latin American carrier that has the network to make smaller North American markets such as Boston, Tampa and Montreal viable. Copa is the only Latin American carrier in Boston and Tampa and operates the only non-stop service from either airport to Latin America (excludes Mexico and the Caribbean). The Boston-Panama and Tampa-Panama local markets may be small but with connections to virtually every possible destination in Latin America (major and secondary), the routes become viable.
Copa will enjoy a similar distinction in Montreal, hotels in new york which is served by about 20 foreign carriers but no carrier from Latin America with the exception of Aeromexico . There are several low frequency routes from Montreal to Mexico and Costa Rica, operated by several Canadian carriers and Aeromexico, but these are mainly leisure point-to-point markets and do not generally offer connections into South America. The only exception is Aeromexico, which offers one daily flight from Mexico City , but Aeromexico hotels in new york has a limited network hotels in new york in Central and South America.
Canada represents a modestly sized but important growth hotels in new york market for Copa as it continues to build on its already leading network connecting hotels in new york the Americas. The Canada-South America market is underserved, with non-stop services available on only five routes – Toronto to Bogota, Caracas , Lima , Santiago and Sao Paulo. Air Canada is the only operator of all these routes, providing only 24 weekly flights – seven to Sao Paulo, five to Santiago, five to Caracas, four to Bogota and three to Lima. The Santiago flights continue onto Buenos Aires , providing a one-stop same plane product.
In launching services to Toronto in mid-2011, Copa opened up one-stop connections from Toronto to almost 30 markets in South America, providing in many cases the most convenient routing as Air Canada only serves six of these destinations. Copa also serves over 20 destinations in Central America and the Caribbean but for passengers comi