PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 16 April 2010 : by B Marcello

Customer Rating : 4/5

I made a connection in Panama so spent just 3 hours there. The airport is very well-organized, clean and is plenty of shops. The majority of the flights depart on time and all the connections are organized so that yo don´t have to spend more than 3 hours waiting for the other flight.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 9 March 2010 : by Peter Harrison

Customer Rating : 5/5

I can only echo the comments of others, using the airport for transit only. I came from AMS with KLM and found the connection with my COPA flight to MGA to be problem free. The same also on my return leg. Facilities, shopping and eating places are excellent. A small airport with only a short walk to any of the piers. Travelling from Europe my only alternative to get to Nicaragua would have been via a US airport with all the legendary hassle. I would certainly not hesitate to use this routing again for trips to Central/South America.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 22 September 2009 : by Daniel Haverstrock

Customer Rating : 5/5

I came from Amsterdam with KLM and found the connection with my COPA flight very easy and fast. It has free wireless internet connection, a huge duty free and 3 restaurants (2 fast food restaurant and 1 international restaurant). Since this airport is small you dont have to walk too much. It takes you like 6 minutes to walk all the airport. For me is a pleasure to take connections on this airport.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 17 August 2009 : by Dan Landis

Customer Rating : 4/5

Visited PTY (Panama Airport) again and I stand corrected. There is a souvenir shop before immigration and a Subway sandwich shop as well as small restaurant. The airport gets a better review from me this time than last!

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 30 April 2009 : by Andre Souza

Customer Rating : 4/5

PTY is quite modern nowadays, much better than many Brazilian airports! Immigration is fast and hassle free! There are many duty frees, and it's great to make conections there! Only have good things to say about this airport so far.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 15 April 2009 : by D Lands

Customer Rating : 3/5

We just flew out of Tocumen and reiterate the comments. Nice building and plenty of seats - but absolutely no airport amenities as opposed to duty free shops. There is one restaurant, no place to buy a newspaper or souvenirs, and no snack bar. There are plenty of duty free shops but I doubt someone would buy a $1000 computer at airport. The authorities should take out half of the shops and put in a few more restaurants and souvenir shops. SJO Airport (San Jose, Costa Rica) should be the model!

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 20 March 2009 : by Carl Pilon

Customer Rating : 2/5

PTY looks nice, is relatively clean, and plenty of seating. Security checks are cramped, jammed as they are under a staircase, but that is often the case when new security control areas have been shoehorned into existing facilities. Gate area is bright and spacious, with large windows overlooking the tarmac. What is unacceptable, though, is the sheer lack of amenities: as several commenters have already pointed out, there is but one restaurant in the building. That is grossly insufficient. To compound the problem, there is no convenience store / newsagent / bookshop in the terminal. Anywhere. If you want to buy a 42" plasma flat screen TV (because that's such a convenient piece of carry-on luggage, right?), you'll find a half- dozen retailers.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 13 December 2008 : by Ray Miles

Customer Rating : 2/5

I would rate PTY quite high in terms of ease of transfer, availability of seating and speed of immigration. However, the fact that there is only one (poor) cafe/restaurant is an absolute disgrace. Transferring there twice in the past ten days at the peak mid evening period, there were long lines for a seat until about 8.30pm. When we did get one, the food was miserable and the coffee virtually undrinkable. Meanwhile, the duty free and other shops are virtually empty. What a waste of space.

PANAMA TOCUMEN AIRPORT review : 22 July 2008 : by Lisa Broderick

Customer Rating : 4/5

I have been travelling through Tocumen 4-5 times per year for the past 10 years. I am impressed with the improvements made recently. I would like to see a few more restaurants - a juice bar, coffee shop perhaps. The one restaurant is soo popular you may miss your flight waiting for your order.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Ronald DePass

8 April 2008   Customer Rating :

PTY is the airport to depart and arrive from every time I travel, since I'm from Panama. Renovations are showing quite an improvement compared to Tocumen's 2004 airport. PTY airport needs to add more restaurants. Since it's COPA hub it will always be crowded between 8am - 12noon and 5pm - 9pm. If you are PTY is a stop in your trip, make sure you plan it between 12 to 5 and/or after 9 in the evening, otherwise, it will be a very crowded airport. Overall, it's a small airport not to compare with European's or North American airports, but user friendly and full of places to go shopping. Need a food court urgently!

Panama Tocumen Airport by C Bunyard

21 January 2008   Customer Rating :

The airport looks more like a shopping mall than an airport. The design is geared much more toward making money off bored travellers with long layovers (very common at this airport, especially with Copa Airlines.) There is some space to walk though.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Oscar Palermo

13 January 2008   Customer Rating :

I had been traveling to Panama since 1999 when I was stationed at Ft Clayton. I noticed a lot of improvement. There are still few areas need attention but it will be fixed. I will recommend few more ATM machines.

Panama Tocumen Airport by F Dunbar

9 January 2008   Customer Rating :

I had a four-hour layover going to and coming from Colombia. There is only one restaurant (waitress service) for passengers. It is crowded, expensive and has a limited menu. There are two hot dog carts in other parts of the airport, which never seemed to be open. However there are many tax-free shops (jewellery, perfume, electronics, candy, luggage, clothes.) If you don't love to shop, forget it. My suggestions to passengers - avoid this layover. Next time, I'll pay the extra $100. Pack a lunch.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Kenneth Mackie

21 September 2007   Customer Rating :

Travelled through Tocumen for the first time in 2 years and was very impressed with the renovations. There is still a problem at certain times of day with large queues rapidly developing for departing passengers waiting to clear immigration and security and on the inbound also at Immigration. I arrived on one leg at 11am on a Sunday and had a 30 minute wait for Immigration and the queue behind me just kept getting longer. However the airside facilities are a great improvement on several years ago, clean and modern and airy and much more spacious and some very good duty free shopping available.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Andres Bissot

22 September 2006   Customer Rating : n/a

Panama Tocumen airport is nearly finished with its renovation and is so much better looking compared to when I first flew into PTY 4 years ago. I was surprised of how fast they remodeled the airport and when I was there when it was in the middle stage of the remodeling it still was not complicated to go trough. There are many new popular stores there such as Tommy Hilfiger and many more known stores. The only problem with PTY is that the airport is begging to get to get over crowded in the morning hours. They should have made a second security/ immigration check point, the line was so long for that the flight was delayed ten more minutes to wait for some passengers that were still in line at security. So if you are flying out try to leave around 12-4pm when there are not too many flights. All in all PTY is a great and easy airport to go trough.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Frank Schreiber
10 May 2006

To Dave Klassen's comment. ocumen International Airport is in its final stages of a makeover with an investment of over US$70 million, this might generate some discomfort on travelers but soon it will be ready and new systems will be implemented to overcome any inconveniences passenger might have experienced . The US$20.00 exit tax to leave the country shall be included in your ticket. I would suggest you verify with your travel agent or airline to verify if this was double charged. As for weight in bags, it is nothing new you will visit a country and depart with extra weight due to shopping, wet clothes, whatever it is, it adds on weight. The airlines charge for the extra weight NOT the airport. Every space available in airports is rented and due to the traffic and volume of passengers retail space becomes expensive and this will increase every single item on airport shops (ex. can of pop), not only in Panama but also Toronto, Miami, New York, etc.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Justin Tsui
30 November 2005

Panama is taking shape bit by bit. It is convenient to fly through. As Andrew mentioned, the $20 is already included in your ticket price, so you don't need to pay again. Security checkpoints are good, though grumpy sometimes. Not a serious matter. Arriving at the late hours at 9:30 and more is a headache as immigration and getting your luggage takes a long time. I've arrived in Panama before at 9:30 a.m. or so and immigration took me 5 minutes to clear! But of course, bear in mind that all airlines from US and Europe have their landing slots allocated at that time! It's a zoo at night! Overall, Tocumen is not all bad. Just choose the right time of the day to arrive and you'll be fine.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Andrew Wilkins
29 August 2005

You very rarely need to pay the $20 departure tax anymore as it is included in most tickets now. The only exceptions may be on charter flights. The airport is under renovation and will be very nice once finished, some slight inconveniences right not but nothing serious. I am sorry that one of the previous posters sees the need to equate buying a soda in a corner store as against buying one at an airport concession. (Actually sodas in the supermarket are 45 cents!!!) A $1.00 soda at a US airport will probably set you back over $3.00. All in all Panama is one of the better Central American airports and I fly regularly within the region.

Panama Tocumen Airport by John Sims

6 May 2005

This airport is very easy. Upon arrival on American Airlines, it took us 20 minutes to go through customs and immigration. Once through immigration, our luggage was available and out we went. The rental car companies are all right there in the airport and our experience with Hertz was first rate. They bring the car right up to the curb. Going home, there are not a lot of dinning options. There are a few places down by the rental car place and one place once you are through security in the concourse. Prices are what you would expect in the US. There are several shops with liquor, perfumes, cloths and electronics. Getting through immigration to depart took about 10 minutes and this was at about 5 a.m. They did not charge us the $20 per person exit fee. This might have been dumb luck, but we weren’t charged.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Dave Klassen

15 February 2005

This is the worst airport we've been to. Arriving in Panama is good (other than the 1 hour + that it takes to get your luggage). Leaving is quite a different story. They make one last attempt to grab all of your remaining money. Starting with the $20 US tax to leave the country. Then they weigh your luggage, anything over 40 kilos per couple, you're charged $6 per kilo. I talked to 6 couples who said their luggage weighed in the 30's kilos in Toronto, yet here it all weighed around the 43 kilo mark, allowing them to grab an extra $15-$20 US. All 6 couples had the same luggage as when they arrived. All our souvenirs were in our carry-ons. We even left some of what we brought in the motel room for the maids. The prices in the airport were marked up by as much as 600%. One small example, a can of pop was 30 cents in town, at the airport it was as much as $2 US. I am not a smoker, but for those that are was even more torture. They want everyone there 4 hrs before departure, yet there is absolutely no smoking on the departure side of the airport - and you can't step outside the airport. This along with a 5 hr non-smoking flight. One person asked if there was no way possible he could smoke. They told him the only way was for him to go thru immigration back to the Panama side, have a smoke and pass thru immigration again.

Panama Tocumen Airport by Mac Chen

30 April 2004

This nice small efficient airport. In need of a refurbishment but I understand that there's a programme in place to expand and modernize it's facilities. I've passed thru it several times and now, unlike most Latin American airports, the airport tax is included in the ticket price - no longer need to queue up and waste time in a government counter or worrying to have enough cash avail for it. The second floor before passport control is always empty and nice place to relax. Once you go airside, it's a duty-free hell, chock full of stores; place becomes hectic when all the flights from Copa land/depart since connecting people literally run from store to store scooping up all kinds of merchandise - supposedly it has the best bargains in the continent. Only caveats are the lack of food establishments or a decent news stand, and too few seating areas in the transit part. Hopefully this will be solved with the expansion plans in place. Overall nice, small, user-friendly place. 

Panama Tocumen Airport by John Frewen-Lord

3 February 2004

This airport was quite a surprise. Arriving at 3 AM and getting through Panama immigration was the only negative point. On departure, we found a very busy ground side concourse, but check in on our Iberia flight to Miami was quite orderly and efficient. Don't forget to pay the $20 departure tax, but there are airport staff cruising around making sure you've paid! Airside is where we found the big surprise - a shopping concourse to rival Heathrow's! You could buy just about anything there, and at very competitive prices. A view of one of the runways completes the picture. One thing was bizarre though - aircraft taking off in opposite directions on the same runway, depending on which end was closer!


 

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