Panamá City Airport (PTY): terminals, flights

Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen (IATA: PTY, ICAO: MPTO) is a network point for Panamá City, Panama. Our catalogue shows 0 departing routes and 2 arriving, with the airlines, frequencies and lowest peso (MXN) fares listed below.

Airport facts

PTY carries 2 routes and 3 airlines in our catalogue, totalling 19 weekly departures. Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen (ICAO MPTO) serves Panamá City, Panama, in the America/Panama zone (UTC−5 in July). Its coordinates (9.07136, -79.3835) are the basis of every distance on this site.

• IATA: PTY
• ICAO: MPTO
• City: Panamá City
• Country: Panama
• Time zone: America/Panama
• Coordinates: 9.07136, -79.3835
• Airlines at the airport: 3

Time difference against Mexico City. In July, Panamá City runs 1 h ahead of the Mexican capital (UTC−5 versus UTC−6). In January the airport operates on UTC−5, so the gap is not constant across the year: daylight saving shifts it. This is the calculation that decides whether a pre-booked ground connection still works.

Coordinates, and why we publish them. 9.07136, -79.3835 is the position from which every great-circle distance on this site is computed, including the ones that set the EU261 compensation band. It is not the distance the aircraft flies — that follows airways and diversions — but the geodesic measure the regulations use. Publishing it lets anyone recompute the figures on these pages.

Airlines at PTY

3 catalogued airlines operate routes to or from PTY: 2 full-service and 1 low-cost, with checked allowance from 0 to 25 kg. Alliances present: SkyTeam, Star Alliance. They cover 2 catalogued routes and 19 weekly departures. The table below lists each operator with its type, alliance and checked allowance.

Carriers in our catalogue operating routes to or from this airport, with type, alliance and economy baggage allowance:

How this list is built. These are the airlines appearing in catalogued routes that touch PTY, not the airport’s full directory: a carrier that flies here but not on a pair we cover does not appear. The type — full-service or low-cost — and the allowance come from our own record for each carrier, and where the datum does not exist we say so rather than filling it with a plausible number.

25 kg separate the most generous operator from the leanest at PTY. That gap is what reorders prices once the bag is in: a cheaper base fare on a carrier with no included baggage can land above a full-service one the moment you check a single piece. Compare the total, not the headline figure.

Routes to Panamá City (PTY)

Our catalogue lists 2 routes into PTY, totalling 19 weekly departures and spanning 2,411 to 2,870 km. The busiest is MEX-PTY at ~14 flights a week; 0 of them carry a cached fare, spread across 1 audience profiles. Every row in this section comes from that same corridor catalogue, not from a live search.

What traffic PTY moves. By audience profile, the routes catalogued here split as: Latin American regional corridor (2). That mix explains the airport’s seasonality: family corridors spike in December and Holy Week, leisure ones follow the holiday calendar, and regional ones stay flatter across the year.

Not all of these routes fly daily. The thinnest on the list is MTY-PTY at ~5 weekly departures — under one a day. On a pair like that a cancellation is not resolved in hours: the next seat may be two or three days out, which is why it is worth avoiding the last flight before a fixed commitment.

Connection tips

PTY concentrates 19 catalogued weekly departures across 3 airlines, in the America/Panama zone. That density is what decides how much slack to leave on a connection: the more of its own services the airline runs here, the more same-day rebooking options exist.

Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen runs on the America/Panama time zone; factor the offset from your origin city when planning connections and transfers. The busiest route at PTY is MEX-PTY (~14 flights a week). Book 4–8 weeks ahead for the busiest routes to/from Panamá City; fares climb in December, Holy Week and summer. Each route guide above shows month-by-month seasonality and the lowest peso fare. That window is a general Mexican-market rule of thumb, not a measurement of this route: our series records observed prices, not the lead time at which each ticket was bought.

The cheap connection that loses the checked bag. Two separate tickets are not one itinerary: there is no interline agreement, the bag is not checked through to the final destination, and if the first flight lands late the second airline owes you nothing — it sold a different flight. The apparent saving evaporates the moment you buy a same-day replacement. On a single ticket, rebooking and the bag transfer are the carrier’s problem, not yours.

FAQ

The 8 questions on this record are answered from catalogue figures for PTY: routes and weekly frequencies, minimum fares observed by the collector, checked-baggage allowances and the rights regime that applies on each leg. No answer adds data that is not in those sources.

What are the IATA and ICAO codes for Panamá City airport? The IATA code is PTY and the ICAO code is MPTO. Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen serves Panamá City, Panama.

Which airlines operate at PTY? Airlines on our catalogued routes at PTY: Aeromexico, Copa Airlines, Volaris.

How many routes are there from Panamá City (PTY)? Our catalogue lists 0 departing routes and 2 arriving at PTY — see the tables above.

What time zone is PTY in? PTY operates in the America/Panama time zone.

How many weekly departures does PTY have in this catalogue? Across the catalogued routes touching PTY we count 19 weekly departures over 3 airlines and 2 routes. That is the coverage relevant to Mexican travellers, not the airport’s full directory.

What is the time difference between Panamá City and Mexico City? In July, Panamá City runs 1 h ahead of Mexico City (UTC−5 versus UTC−6). The gap shifts with daylight saving, so recompute it for your exact date before booking transfers.

What is the longest catalogued route at PTY? Catalogued routes at PTY span 2,411 to 2,870 km great-circle, computed from each airport’s coordinates. That distance drives aircraft type and the applicable compensation band on European sectors.

Which airlines are based at PTY? Copa Airlines run PTY as a base. An airline based here keeps aircraft and crews overnight, so it has more of its own services to rebook a disrupted passenger onto the same day.

Related

• Panama airports

Published by FlightsMX Editorial Team. Last verified: May 2026.