Flying to Panama City

I flew to Panama City yesterday and will be here for a few days taking care of some business. The airport at Bocas is under a lot of re-construction. I would say remodeling but I think re-construction is more appropriate. There are two carriers carriers servicing this airport, Air Panama and Aero Perlas. I have usually flow Air Panama in the past but opted to go with Aero Perlas this time despite the cost being the same between the two.

Aero Perlas is a part of Taca and so I can earn frequent flyer miles with them. There are two airports in Panama City. Tocomen (PTY) is the international airport and is about an hour taxi ride from Albrook (PAC), the domestic airport. Usually if you need to get to Tucomen you would first have to fly from Bocas to Albrook then take a taxi to Tucomen. Aero Perlas has just started one daily direct flight between Bocas and Tocomen so I'll have to keep that in mind in the future.

Check in was pretty quick but getting through security was painfully slow. Fortunately I was third in line. One lady took care of all things security related. One passenger was allowed to approach the security check point at a time. The lady would gather all the personal belongings on the belt, watch the passenger walk through the metal detector, run the carry on stuff through the x-ray machine, hand search all bags, re-inspect when necessary and then start with the next passenger.

The plane arrive on time and once the arriving passengers disembarked we were allowed to board. There is no pre-assigned seating on this small turbo prop plane and capacity for the morning flight was about 40%. After seating the safety announcements were made first in Spanish and then in English, a few minutes later we were climbing towards cruising altitude.

The flight was very comfortable and even though it was a 50 minute flight we received full beverage service as well as a small breakfast tray. On the breakfast tray we had a tasty ham and cheese sandwich and a chilled fruit plate consisting of pineapple and papaya. Both were ripe and sweet. Arrival in to Panama City was just what one would expect. It only took a few minutes to get my checked bag and then a taxi to the hotel. For such great service I'm surprised I haven't flown Aero Perlas much before but I'm looking forward to my return flight to Bocas in just a couple days.