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Some of the passengers that travelled on Copa Airlines’ inaugural flight to Barbados.

First flight

Inaugural Copa Airlines flight from Panama to Barbados a success

Yesterday was the first day of a long, fruitful relationship between Barbados and Latin America.

This as Copa Airlines made its way to Barbados on its inaugural flight.

Following the flight, pilot Captain Marc Holford – who grew up in Barbados – told The Barbados Advocate that he is proud to have been the one to fly the plane to his homeland for the first time, while his mother Marva Holford, who was also on the flight, smiled proudly.

Captain Chetwyn Clarke, also a man of Barbadian soil, will be flying the plane back to Panama. He expressed that he is “quite thrilled” for there to finally be a direct flight from Panama to Barbados.

Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Tocumen International Airport, Minister of Tourism and International Transport, the Hon. Kerrie Symmonds, said that this exchange between Latin America and Barbados presented a wonderful opportunity for the relationship between the two to be strengthened.

“So where Copa Airlines meets Barbados today we have crossed a bridge between eastern Caribbean and western America, and I think that this is a happy occasion and we look forward to making this a fruitful and wonderful experience for all concerned,” he said.

CEO at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., William Griffith believes that this partnership puts Barbados in a position where we are not limited to “putting all of our eggs in one basket”.

“By contrast, we need to make sure that we continue to diversify our source markets as we build brand Barbados,” he said.

“We see the Latin American market as a burgeoning opportunity for expansion and we have already received overwhelming responses by both sides on this new service. We’re confident of our partnership with Copa and we believe it will be a rewarding partnership for Barbados, Panama and beyond.”

Although this partnership took a few years to solidify, it was obvious that persons in both Barbados and Panama, were looking forward to seeing this partnership grow.

The flight is expected to run every Tuesday and Friday, with a flight time of three hours and roundtrip fares start at US $483.

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