Review of Copa Airlines flight Bogota → Panamá City in Economy

Introduction

Hello again readers. After a few days in Colombia it was time to travel to México during a few weeks to work a little bit. Specific region to visit was Oaxaca state, in the southern part of the country, next to the Pacific Ocean. From Colombia to Mexico there are many possibilities to fly with, specially between Bogota and Ciudad de México, which are linked daily by Avianca, Aeroméxico and Interjet. In my case I decided to make a stopover in Panama Airport as one of my biggest wishes in central américa was to try Copa Airlines and the "Hub de las Américas", Panama Airport.
So I booked a flight departing very early in the morning and arriving in Mexico just before 12pm. During the afternoon i had to pay a visit to the airport in order to pick up a group of travellers, so I decided to bring my bags with me and left them at the airport during the night, so I don't have to worry about them.

bogota-panama

It was about 2AM when I decided to start my trip to the airport using a taxi. I arrived at El Dorado airport some good 2.30h before departure. Some good amount of people was using the airport at that time, but lots of them were sleeping while waiting for their flights depart during first hours of the morning.

Check in counters

Ground service told me the STD was changed from 4:50AM to 4:30AM in order to avoid air traffic (I guess while landing in Panama as it is a very rough hour there where dozens of Copa flights arrive from all Latin America). The flight today was fully booked.

After left my bags I headed to security and immigration controls. Right after that I decided to walk a little bit through the terminal 1 in order not to fall asleep.

Interjet flight leaving to Ciudad de México (my final destination) 2:30 hours late.

Our plane is arriving from Panama.

International departures from Bogota at the morning.

Boarding started a few miuntes to 4AM. As the flight was full it took a while. First class passengers were invited to board first. After that, passengers with disabilities and children, followed by Economy class passengers, who boarded in 4 different groups.

Here we go México!

Once inside the plane, I decided to take a short nap before take off. Cabin was old-stylish. I guess Copa is using these planes on shorter routes such as Bogota, Medellin, Quito and Central America destinations. Longer flights to Brazil, USA, Canada or Argentina are equipped with IFE.

Legroom was good

Captain woke me up with a welcome message informing us about the route, time in the air and weather conditions. It will be an uneventful red-eye flight tonight.

At about 4:40 pushback was made and our 738 made it's taxi to the runway. We took off to the west at 4:55AM. Some lights from the suburbs of Bogota were able to be seen from the left side. Soon, we made a right turn to the northwest and we headed to Panama.

While seat belt was turned off the cabin crew started it's service. I wasn't expecting much on this flight but surprisingly cabin crew came with a hot cheese and turkey sandwich. It came along with an orange juice. Outside it was fully dark and only lightnings were able to be seen from the window.

After the meal service cabin was very quite as most of the passengers fall asleep. Sun was starting to rise and skies were getting clear. By the time, descent started.

During descent a felt asleep and I woke up a few seconds before touchdown, just after 6AM in the morning after a little bit more than an hour in the air.

Taxiing to the gate

And parked

Engines were turned off and cabin crew requested to turn on the air and close the windows for the well-being of the passengers on the next flight. It was the first time I experienced this announcement, should Copa be the only airline in the world to do that? …

A jetbridge was connected and passengers disembarked. Most of them were continuing to other destinations.