Copa Aims To Expand Maintenance Hangar At Tocumen International

PANAMA CITY, Panama—Copa Airlines plans to expand its in-house maintenance repair and overhaul facility at its Panama City Tocumen International airport hub.

The Panamanian flag carrier’s CEO Pedro Heilbron on Feb. 4 told delegates at Aviation Week’s MRO Latin America conference here that the company has not finalized its expansion plans but aims to start work on enlarging the three-bay facility by the end of 2025.

The heavy airframe maintenance hangar opened in July 2019 and was instrumental during the COVID-19 pandemic for Copa to transition parked aircraft to revenue service-ready conditions without relying on outside service providers.

Aside from the facility’s crucial function in helping Copa navigate continuing maintenance capacity constraints that persist in Latin America, Heilbron said the company’s in-house maintenance operations produce faster aircraft turn times and better-quality work and 25-35% cost savings. The carrier is performing roughly 70% of its own heavy maintenance, its CEO said.  

Copa ended the 2024 third quarter with a fleet of 110 aircraft—68 Boeing 737-800s, 32 737-9s, nine 737-700s and a single 737-8. At that time, the carrier expected to take delivery of two 737-8s before year-end 2024 for a total fleet of 112 Boeing narrowbodies.

Other initiatives Copa’s technical operations team have undertaken to ease supply chain pressures include designing an algorithm to predict when engines need to come off wing. Technicians are also using the tool after a part undergoes an initial repair to predict the time until a second repair is necessary as the lifetime of those parts become shorter.