Triangle residents can now travel directly from RDU to Panama thanks to Copa Airlines

Raleigh-Durham International Airport welcomed a 160-seat, blue-finned Boeing 737 Friday touting the name of an airline that may be new to some Triangle residents: Copa Airlines.

It’s because of the new-to-RDU airline that customers can now fly directly to Panama City, the airport’s first nonstop flight to Latin America. Friday’s inaugural flight is the airport’s 10th international destination, a number that has doubled since 2019.

Copa reaches 85 destinations in 32 countries across North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Seventy of those are now accessible from Raleigh.

RDU is the airline’s 16th destination in the United States. But the Triangle wasn’t always on Copa’s radar.

Copa CEO Pedro Heilbron told The News & Observer it was RDU officials who first brought the idea to the airline. When they discovered that 275 people each day were flying between RDU and Central and South America, they started to look for an airline that could provide those customers with nonstop flights.

On Friday, that goal became a reality. Under two soaring arches of water in the customary cannon salute, the jet taxied to the terminal with an official landing time of 2:22 p.m., about six minutes ahead of schedule. Cheers and exclamations erupted from the crowd of guests and RDU employees watching from the tarmac when the pilot and copilot unfurled Panamanian and American flags from the plane’s cockpit.

“Nearly 2,200 travelers fly to and from destinations outside the U.S. every day at RDU and more than 200 of them are going to Central and South America,” RDU president and CEO Michael Landguth told the crowd gathered at the gate Friday.

“We reached out to our region’s Latin American community, who overwhelmingly supported the new route during the recruitment process,” he said

Record growth

The new nonstop service to Panama City is not the first international addition this summer — and it’s not the last.

Earlier this month, on June 6, the first nonstop flight between the Triangle and Frankfurt, Germany, via Lufthansa landed in the Triangle. And on July 1, Aeromexico will begin daily flights between RDU and Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City.

RDU estimates that the added Frankfurt destination will bring $3.3 billion to the North Carolina economy over the next 25 years.

Partly thanks to its expanding international service, RDU saw record-high traffic last month. More than 1.4 million people flew through the airport in May, a new record for monthly traffic. Landguth expects passenger traffic to increase as the airport adds new international destinations.

RDU was the fastest-growing large airport in the United States in 2023 with a rate of 22%. San Francisco International Airport, Washington-Dulles International Airport and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport followed RDU with growth rates of about 18%.

Landguth said that RDU moved domestic carriers Breeze Airways and Sun Country Airlines from Terminal 2, the hub for all international flights, to Terminal 1 to manage the increase in traffic.

“We’re also starting to better manage the gates we have to make sure we can get the best utilization out of every available gate we’ve got every time during the day,” he said. “It’s a combination of trying to be more efficient with our operations plus moving some folks over to Terminal 1.”

Latin American connection

David DeFossey, who heads commercial sales for Copa in the United States, Mexico and Canada, said the new service bridges the Triangle and Latin America like never before.

“Today, we take a giant leap forward in enhancing our presence in the United States by connecting the vibrant Raleigh-Durham region renowned for its academic brilliance, rich cultural scene and cutting edge innovation to our dynamic Copa Airlines hub in Panama City, Panama,” DeFossey said.

Francis Lewis opened the celebration hosted at Gate C17 with a performance. Wearing a colorful dress and headpiece from the province of Colon, she danced the congo for the crowd of guests and travelers.

Lewis, who is originally from Panama and lives in Raleigh, said she’s been dancing for more than 50 years.

Larissa McGrath also danced at the event following comments from Landguth, DeFossey and RDU Authority Board board chairman Ellis Hankins. She wore Gala Pollera, the national dress of Panama that originated in the central provinces of the country. Both performers’ dresses and headpieces were completely handmade.

“Whenever you see any of our folklore represented outside of the country, this is what you will see,” McGrath said.

Beginning Friday, weekly departures are planned for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. DeFossey said Copa may increase to daily service from the current schedule.

With a growing Latino community and several universities with foreign students in the Triangle, DeFossey said Copa saw an opportunity to make it more convenient to visit relatives and friends in Latin American countries.

He added that all Copa flights feature a complimentary hot meal catered from Panama, whether the flight is two hours or four.

“It is a pride of Panama to work with Copa and it really reflects on our services,” he said

At 4:20 p.m., Josue Andrade, his wife and three children from Wilkesboro departed RDU on the nearly full Copa flight back to Panama City. They were traveling to Honduras, but planned to stay overnight in Panama.

Andrade was also on the first nonstop flight from Baltimore to Panama City. He said the direct flight from Raleigh is more convenient for Triangle residents.

“It’s going to be good for more tourists to travel to Panama instead of going from here to Miami or from here to Houston or from here to Atlanta or from here to New York,” he said.