Panama Tocumen Airport

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.

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.

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!