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Since March 2026, The airline Copa Airlines will make permanent the increase in 7 weekly frequencies between Panama and Manta, after less than 3 years of flights.
Copa Airlines has published a significant increase in the frequency of its direct flights between the Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City and Eloy Alfaro International Airport (GUY) on Manta, Ecuador.
This progressive increase will culminate in the operation of seven (7) weekly frequencies (a daily flight) from 7 march 2026, establishing a permanent and robust connection between these two important cities.
Cup with 7 flights to Manta
Obviously, the bet of Cup is to operate a daily flight to Manta permanently throughout the year, but this will be subject to market demand conditions, if it goes down, frequencies will drop.
The daily flight on this route is not new and I already reported it a few weeks ago when the route passed the six frequencies and then seven in the high travel season July and September, but this time, los vuelos están cargados diariamente para todo el 2026.
For the remainder of this year and January, will remain 4 frequencies, while in February they will be 6 flights between both cities, arriving at seven since March.
Panama-Manta route a total success
To understand the relevance of this news, It is crucial to review the history of the route and how it has grown:
- Launch (June of 2023): Copa Airlines began its operations in Manta on 27 June 2023, marking a milestone by establishing the city as the airline's third destination in Ecuador, after Quito and Guayaquil. The route began with three (3) weekly frequencies.
- First Increment (December of 2023): Due to the strong market reception, just six months after its launch, the airline increased the frequency to four (4) weekly flights, showing positive performance during the first months of operation.
- More increases: since the inauguration and thanks to the positive results, The frequencies have been increasing gradually and much faster than expected, reaching the 6 flights during 2025.
Why do I say it's a success?? If we review the latest routes that the airline has inaugurated since 2023, one of the fastest growing has undoubtedly been Manta, that if we compare for example, with Chiclayo, the evolution and profitability of the route is notable.
Schedules
Daily flights will operate on the same schedule that they have been operating since its inauguration, which are:
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- CM706 takes off from Panama at 03:23 pm and lands in Manta at 05:25 pm with a duration of 2 hours and 2 minutes.
- CM707 takes off from Manta at 06:23 pm and lands back in Panama at 08:23 pm with a duration of 2 hours.
The next step under my vision and in view of the current results? I would say that it is consolidating the 7 weekly flights and from there, start operating with two daily flights on some days of the week to offer new connections and better schedules connecting in the Hub of the Americas.
