(CAPA) Panama’s Copa Airlines is continuing its rapid expansion by opening at least three new routes in June, which will increase its hub of Americas operation at Panama City to a market leading 59 destinations. As is typically the case with Copa, the carrier is evenly distributing its network expansion in 2012 to different regions with Las Vegas in North America, Curacao in the Caribbean, Liberia in Central America and potentially Recife in South America being added. Again typical for Copa, all the routes are not currently served by any carrier and Copa will initially operate them with less than daily frequency.
Las Vegas will become Copa’s seventh destination in the mainland US after Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, New York and Washington (Chicago was launched last month). Curacao will become Copa’s 13th destination in the Caribbean while Liberia will become its second destination in Costa Rica after San Jose and its seventh destination in Central America (eight including Panama City itself). Recife will likely become Copa’s sixth destination in Brazil and 29th in South America.
According to distribution systems, Copa will launch Panama City-Curacao service with four weekly flights on 12-Jun-2012. Panama City-Liberia will launch with two weekly flights on 24-Jun-2012 and Panama City-Las Vegas will launch on 27-Jun-2012 with three weekly flights. Panama City-Recife is also expected to be launched in June or possibly later in 2012. The initial schedule and start date for Recife is yet to be loaded onto distribution systems.
Copa typically adds new routes in two batches every year – one in June and one in December. The June routes are typically announced in January. Copa has not yet formally announced its new Jun-2012 routes but has already added Curacao, Las Vegas and Liberia to the network map on its website, suggesting a formal announcement is imminent.