Copa just more than doubled its free Panama stopover to 15 days. Skip it and you leave a whole vacation, and a pile of miles, on the table.
If you have ever connected through Tocumen, Copa’s self-styled “Hub of the Americas,” the city is an interesting cultural (and geographical) midpoint between North and South America. The duality of that position is the entire reason the stopover exists, though others like Turkish (also both a cultural and geographical duality) offers a similar (thought shorter) option. Copa would rather turn a forced connection into a deliberate stay, and it’s in the benefit of both the carrier and the country to encourage this additional tourism. The airline expects to carry close to 21 million passengers in 2026 across up to 420 daily flights through Panama, and it wants more than 250,000 of them to walk out of the airport and spend a few nights in the country.
I love this kind of promotion, a mini vacation or at least a few days to explore the city, the beaches, and the locks. It is genuinely free time in a country most travelers fly directly over without a second thought.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
