Panama Tocumen Airport

I have been travelling through Panama City airport for many years. Since before it developed itself as a hub. The secondary security checks before you can board your plane are infuriating. They force you to throw away liquids - like water that you bought in the terminal after you passed the original security and force you to sit in an area where there is nothing to drink until you board. I flew about 12 times between Colombia, Venezuela and Panama City over a period of 3 weeks, recently. I bird watch. I am used to searches because I am often in difficult areas. I am more familiar than most people with the need to keep an eye on things. I have never see anything as incompetent as Panama City airport and I like COPA. But the airport security authorities must be damaging their business.

I have flown in and out of this airport at least twenty time in the past ten years and this was the worst of those. While the airport continues to improve, part of what they likely see as an improvement has become a ridiculous problem - their form of security. Coming from someone who has seen the USA TSA continue to improve and become more reasonable, the Panamanian airport security continues to become less reasonable. They no longer let you carry your umbrella onboard any Panama flights and so mine was checked in as required and consequently broken. They do not allow carry on fishing poles even those that are designed for travel in a case that fits overhead - they called it a potential weapon. If that wasn't strict enough, they also confiscated my short blunt tweezers as a potential weapon. They wanted to take my travel scissors as well until I refused and explained that they are expensive and have no sharp or pointy parts. So, they allow ink pens that could truly be used to hurt someone, but tweezers are too dangerous? Then, while I am not sure where this happened, the TSA-approved lock was removed and not put back on so I now need to buy another travel lock. I suspect it was removed in Panama since the TSA people designed these locks and have keys to remove them. I have to say that I am very upset with the Panama airport security measures. It seems to me that they may be trying too hard and have gone overboard as our own TSA did in the years right after 9/11.

Panama Tocumen Airport is noisy, crowded, hot and humid, gives way to near freezing then back to the gate where it is hot and humid again. Hard seats. Dirty carpets. Few or no outlets to charge at. Bathrooms tiny and crowded. Noisy, did I mention that? Free WiFi but you have to give them your name and email to get in. People literally standing at our gate because there aren't enough cheap hard seats. Also you have to throw away any drinks you may have bought at your previous airport because at each gate is a security check point. So ditch any expensive airport purchased drinks, take off your belt, keys, change, wallet, watch, shoes, backpack, hat etc for the second time today.

✅ Verified Review | Panama Tocumen is the worst airport for a layover. No comfortable places to sit, often crowded, no place to smoke in or outside the airport (literally have to take a cab 300m away from the airport). The prices are high in this airport. The restaurant and food costs put most American airports to shame. $12 for chips and salsa. $20 for a caprese salad. I would rather a layover at PAP. At least you know what you're getting there.

✅ Verified Review | There is no air conditioning at Panama airport. The temperature is very high and humid. A bad situation and miserable. I can't believe that in this weather, people at the airport don't bother about this situation. If Tocumen wants to become a hub of the Americas, they need to fix these problems.

Panama Tocumen is a horribly congested airport and the staff are not well trained to handle big arrivals. When finally it was time to board our plane more than 1 hour late, they put us in a bus and drove us around from gate 25A to 30 where the departure was supposed to be 1hr before. Totally unnecessary situation and they didn't handled it the way it should be. Nasty restrooms. A big mess.

✅ Verified Review | The airport is simply too small for the tasks it has to do now. The rise of COPA Airlines using PTY as a transfer point and the masses of visitors Panama receives these days means the airport simply can't handle the traffic. A bit like Istanbul and some other cities. A new terminal is under construction but in the short term it's probably going to get worse before it gets better as COPA continues to expand.

Crowded but many things to do while there - more than enough shopping and restaurant options available. Beats LAX. They are building a new terminal one can see across the way from the existing terminal. The success of COPA airlines and the rise of Panama economically is reflected in the above comments.

By and large the worst airport I've been through in Latin America. Extremely rude staff. Unreasonable confiscation of items that were confiscated in other countries, including very strict American airports like JFK. Refusal to even begin communicating with me in a language other than Spanish, which should be a basic requirement for immigration, for example. Nasty eye rolling and teeth sucking when I couldn't understand questions. Everything is disorganized and unkempt. I was forced to throw away coffee I purchased a few feet from the gate in order to get to the gate (through a second round of security, shoes off and x-rays.) Poor signage and communication throughout. Wifi was a joke and extremely limited, especially when it's considered how long Copa Airlines layovers tend to be. The shopping is decent, but who the is going to be in the mood to spend hundreds on designer clothes when they're being treated the way they are here? I frequently travel between countries in North and South America and I will never fly through this airport again and I will certainly never visit that country again. Avoid at all costs.

Panama Tocumen is the only airport in the world where you are almost obliged to take a taxi (30US$) to get in town, even if there are local buses a few hundred meters away. The airport lacks a bus ticket vending machine, which is a shame. The information staff are not really friendly and the taxi drivers are almost harrassing you as soon as you get out the arrival door. Everything else went smoothly and at a normal pace.