Air Panamá Internacional

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
OP	API	ARPA

Founded

1968

Ceased operations

1990

Hubs

Company slogan

Be On The Top (1970s)
The Best Awaits You (1980s)

Parent company

Iberia Airlines (until the late 1970s)

Headquarters

Panama City, Panama

Air Panamá Internacional, also known as Air Panama International or just Air Panama, was a state owned airline from Panama that served as the flag carrier of the country between 1968 and 1989. From its hub at in Panama City, scheduled passenger flights to a number of destinations in the Americas was offered.

Air Panama regularly flew into Los Angeles for years. They even had a permanent lighted sign outside arrivals terminal. I saw it frequently there in the late 1970s, early 80's.

Air Panamá Internacional was founded in 1968 as a joint venture between the government of Panama (67 percent) and Spanish airline Iberia (33 percent). When Iberia pulled out approximately ten years later, the airline became fully state-owned.

During the 1980s, when Panama was ruled by military dictator Manuel Noriega, the route network and aircraft fleet of Air Panamá Internacional went into decline because of the worsened financial and economic situation of the company, which led to Copa Airlines emerging as the largest airline of the country. All flight operations with Air Panamá Internacional ceased in December 1989 over the United States invasion of Panama. The only aircraft of the airline at that time, a Boeing 727, was damaged beyond repair in fighting actions. In January 1990, Air Panamá Internacional declared bankruptcy.

An attempt by the government of Panama to relaunch the airline in 1993 as Panama Air International failed. In 2005, Turismo Aéreo acquired the Air Panama branding and adopted that name.

Over the years, Air Panamá Internacional operated the following aircraft types:

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Air Panamá Internacional offered scheduled flights to the following destinations:

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Wikipedia