Panama Tocumen Airport

Panama is one of the bigger airports in Central America. It has many shops inside the terminal which is good for spending time in while in transit. Prices are good at all these shops. Airport is very clean. Has free wifi but it is not of a good speed. There are not many restaurants, just a few. Food quality is good. Airport staff are helpful.

Arriving and departing Panama Tocumen in January 2016. Arriving an OK experience, although somewhat slow in immigration and customs. I noticed that local people walked to the right (couple of hundred meters) to take the cheaper yellow cabs (instead of the airport cabs). There is a shaded walkway, but not recommended with a lot of luggage. Departure good. Food court on second floor of departures has a lot of choice.

Horrible. There are very few food options especially if you have food allergies or intolerances. I was hugely disappointed. First airport I have been to that doesn't have free wifi. It claims it does but it just doesn't work. We even asked a customer service person and she said it wouldn't work. In the future I will do my best to book flights that avoid this airport. If for whatever reason you cannot avoid it go to Margaritaville the restaurant in the food court and they will give you wifi access and have the most decent food. By the way the airport is very dirty.

This airport is clean. Getting through security was similar to the United States. Encountered no issues. If you are looking for restaurants, go to Gate 23, head upstairs and you will find a Margaritaville full service restaurant as well as a small food court. If you want to smoke, be aware that you cannot smoke anywhere either inside or outside this airport. There are many high end shops and duty free shops to browse.

Flew to Panama to join a cruise. Airport resembled a bus stand. Due to a document check I was taken away to a special immigration counter. After a wait of about an hour I finally got my visa paper and immigration cleared me. Found my luggage removed from belt on the floor and being last one remaining from my flight was easy to locate. Although this airport serves a capital city there was nothing to write home about. Air conditioning not great and it was hot and humid.

Arrivals hall at Panama Tocumen Airport is old, dark, crowded with ceiling tiles missing. Not a great welcome for an American. Also, Americans are finger printed, and face pic taken. Why? I can get into the EU with none of this formality. The departure process needs to be better defined. No signs indicating security procedures like at other airports-laptops out, etc. If you are flying to the USA, you cannot purchase any water post security airside. There is a secondary check at the gate which is a complete joke. Carry ons are x-rayed again and you walk thru a metal detector-the same process as the first time. No bottle water/packaged liquids can be brought onboard the plane. Just crazy when major airports such as LHR, IST, MAD, allow liquids purchased airside to be brought on board. This secondary check appears to be a waste of time and the girls doing it have to question with their supervisor everything. My question does this circus really know what they are doing. Finally, the ventilation system in the airport is awful. One part of the terminal is comfortable, the other is hot and humid. The merchandise in the shops is overpriced considering how much you would pay even in a prime tourist area. Finally free wi-fi is offered but it's not worth your time. My mobile roaming in 3G was faster.

I had a two hour transit at this airport. It was crowded and there are limited seats at the departure gates that are packed very closely to each other. Eventually when a seat was available the person sitting next to me was using FaceTime without earphones so the two way conversation in Spanish was audible to all. The conversation lasted the entire duration of waiting time. At departure the bottle of water that I carried in my bag was confiscated by COPA staff: "Rules" apparently was the perfunctory response. A charmless experience.

I've only transited at Panama Tocumen, but it's a pleasant breeze. The airport is being renovated a bit and that helps. I swear there's chunks of the terminal where the wifi and aircon don't reach - but you can walk to any other part easily where it's more comfortable. Security is a bit odd, I haven't had to go through but you all have to recognize different countries require different things. Panama has it's own regulations, USA has it's own and other countries etc. When you fly from Canada to the USA, you have to take off your shoes. When you fly PTY-USA - shoes off. What's the big problem? They're just enforcing rules in place. I love not having to transfer my bag, or clear customs when making a connection. It's so easy. The Copa Club is pretty decent for those with access and for those without, there's not a lot of places to go, but plenty of places to sit. There's a lot of duty free shopping and electronics deals to be had. My biggest complaint about Panama Tocumen is the price of food. It's all in USD, so that's fine, but why is a Quiznos combo $11 when at a regular Quiznos it would be about $7? So unless you're transiting and going to be there a while, be prepared. If you're showing up from your hotel or whatever, eat first. Not sure why someone said there was no bathrooms after security. That's false. There may be a line, but that's possible anywhere, it's no worse than anywhere else. There's lots of bathrooms.

What a horrible airport. The airport was so bad that I would never consider going to Panama or even going through Panama City again ever. Security staff are so rude and nasty. Confiscate items out of your purse which no other airport in the world has confiscated without any explanation or apology - they just glare at you! The airport sells bottles of water 20 feet from you plane then you are not even allowed to take it on your plane. If it is against the rules why do they sell it at all? What a rip off.

Very slow border control and extremely rude immigration officers. The airport looks a bit shabby. Food is expensive. Duty free is very good. If you are transmitting there is no security control and you disembark straight into boarding area.