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Panama City, July 11 of 2014. – Copa Airlines {NYSE: CPA} subsidiary of Copa Holdings, S.A., and a member of the global airline network Star Alliance, starts today its direct flights to the cities of Georgetown (Guyana) and Fort Lauderdale (USA), from its Hub of the Americas at the Tocumen International Airport, connecting them both with its services throughout the American continent.
Regarding these inaugural flights, Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Airlines, explains that “We are excited with the implementation of these new destinations. With our flight to Georgetown, we hope to boost a great amount of opportunities for the business and tourism sectors of Guyana, which will be connected like never before with all of Latin America and the Caribbean; and with the flight to Fort Lauderdale, we will broaden even more the travelling possibilities for the business, tourist and family passengers to Panama and other destinations in all of Latin America”.
Fort Lauderdale becomes the tenth destination of Copa Airlines in the United States, and fourth in the state of Florida. While with the addition of Georgetown, Guyana, Copa Airlines now flies to 30 different countries in the American continent. These new flights will allow to increase connectivity to 67 business and leisure destinations in all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The inauguration of the new flight to Georgetown, which will efficiently connect Guyana with the rest of the continent, is also loaded with strong emotional content for Copa. With this flight, the dream of Guyanese Captain Krish Persaud (R.I.P.) of uniting with a direct flight, Panama with the South American country becomes true. Captain Persaud trained a great amount of pilots that work today at Copa Airlines, becoming one of the instructors with most flight hours in the world.
“Thanks to the work undertaken by Captain Persaud in Panama, we can today count with a professional and experienced team of pilots, many of them whom are a fundamental part of the world class service that we strive for to provide on a day to day basis to all of our passengers. As a tribute to his effort spent in favor of the aviation of Panama, we have decided to dedicate this first flight to his name” explains Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Airlines.
To Guyana, flight CM254 will depart from the Tocumen International Airport in Panama on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9:22 a.m., arriving at Georgetown at 1:46 p.m. The flight back CM255 will depart on the same days from Georgetown at 3:08 p.m., arriving in Panama City at 5:32 p.m. On the other hand, flight CM265 will depart from Panama on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 11:46 a.m., arriving at Fort Lauderdale at 3:49 p.m. The flight back CM266 will depart from Fort Lauderdale on the same days at 5:44 p.m., arriving at the Hub of the Americas in Panama at 8:23 p.m.
For these flights, the onboard service of Copa Airlines includes courtesy meals and drinks, including wines and beverages; a 12 channel audiovisual entertainment system in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with new movies every month and free headphones. Passengers may accumulate miles through the MileagePlus Frequent Flyer Program.
Founded in 1947, Copa Airlines carried more than 11 million passengers in 2013. The airline was named “Best Airline in the Central American and Caribbean Region” in the Skytrax World Aviation Awards in June of 2013. Also, Copa continues with its commitment of offering an exclusive service to its customers, maintaining the best punctuality performance in America. Recently, FlightStats awarded Copa Airlines with a prize for “Best Airline in South America” in 2013 for its quality and punctuality in service.
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