October's Convention of Puerto Rican Travel Agencies in Guatemala expects to increase tourism from the island in up to 30%.
From September 30 to October 5, within the International Convention of the Puerto Rican Association of Travel Agencies (APAV), over 120 travel agencies will visit several touristic spots in Guatemala.
"The objective is for operators find out more about the country's touristic attractions, hoping to increase 'boricua' visitors in up to 30%", published Sigloxxi.com. "APAV's Josie Lopategui indicated that Puerto Rican tourists are very interested in visiting the country".
In 70% of its routes, COPA has no competition. The Panamanian airline flies to destinations not covered by the major regional airlines such as TAM and LAN.
The company prefers to fly to destinations that are not too popular, where the passengers waiting to board are not many more than 50. And while the airline industry in general is suffering from the effects of the crisis and the balance sheets of the airlines are registering losses or marginal profits in the best case, COPA had operating margins of 17.4% in 2008.
COPA airlines announce that it will increase by one its flights on the Guatemala-Panama route starting in December.
With this new service, Copa will be offering 49 weekly flights from Guatemala: two daily to Nicaragua, one to Costa Rica and four to Panama.
The manager of the airline in Guatemala, Rudy Keller, said that expansion plans for the country include the construction of a new VIP waiting room for its passengers at the La Aurora International Airport.
This new charge will cost $15 plus applicable tax (except in the case of Costa Rica where the tax does apply) per passenger and is non-refundable.
The charge will be added to all ticket sales and virtual MPD issued at the main ticket offices (CTO's) and Airports (ATO's), the airline company reported. It will be applied at the following points: Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
Copa Airlines also received recognition in the regional airline category of "Best Cabin Staff" in Central America and the Caribbean.
The results were based on an annual survey conducted by Skytrax, taken from responses of more than 15.4 million passengers representing 95 different nationalities.
"Copa Airlines is proud to receive once again this important award, which confirms our commitment to maintaining a world-class operation continuously focused on meeting and exceeding our passengers expectations," said Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Airlines. "We owe this to the efforts of a great team -- people who year after year demonstrate the high level of dedication and professionalism."
Copa Airlines has a new system for charging for excess baggage that will go into effect for certain destinations on Sept. 1.
Weight and dimensions of allowed baggage will stay the same, but now the airline will charge more for passengers who exceed the maximums.
The airline says it will charge a single tariff for excess baggage for all of its destinations except for those in Brazil and the United States.
The regional airline Copa has ordered two Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with delivery promised for 2010 and 2011.
With this purchase, Copa Airlines has in effect expanded its order for the Next-Generation aircraft from seven to nine, with an option to order still more.
The company already has 27 aircraft of this design out of its total fleet of 40.
Panama's Copa Airlines will inaugurate direct flights from Panama City to Belo Horizonte, Brazil on August 21.
Belo Horizonte will be Copa's 42nd destination and its fourth in Brazil, where it already flies to Rio, Sao Paulo and Manaus. Copa passengers from Mexico, the United States, Central American and the Caribbean, will be able to join the flights in Panama City without passing through Customs or Migration.
I am not a big fan of airline stocks. As long as I have been watching stocks (30 years), outside of Southwest Airlines (LUV), they seem to spend more time losing money than making it. These are business with huge overhead costs that think nothing of slashing fares to win a bidding war or pick up a few points of market share.
When I took a closer look at Copa Holdings, Inc., I found an airline company that actually seems to make good profits and the valuation looks pretty nice at these levels.