Panama’s Tocumen International Airport Plans to Expand with New Terminals.

Tocumen International Airport, Panama’s main airport and a major continental hub, plans to expand with new terminals and greater passenger capacity, as well as acquire land to build its expansion over the next 25 years.

“We are developing a ‘master plan’ with the company Aecom, which will be ready next August for (its implementation) in the medium and long term for the next 25 years,” said the general manager of Tocumen International Airport, José Ruiz Blanco.

The plan encompasses projects such as the expansion of terminal 2, the construction of a third terminal, the model for building them, the “redesign of the airspace”, as well as an analysis of how many hectares will need to be acquired to expand the airport: “There are many things that this entails for the future and present growth that is coming to us,” he emphasizes.

“All of this leads us to almost double the operations per hour that we have today, which are about 38, and this will take us to almost 65-67 operations per hour, which (in turn) allows us to withstand a growth (of) up to more than 35 million passengers,” the manager stated.

The projects would begin in 2027: The expansion of Terminal 2, with an investment of $208.7 million, which preliminarily includes a departure hall with 13 gates and 1,420 seats; new taxiways, a remote platform for eight aircraft, rapid exits, waiting bays, and improvements in drainage, lighting, and signage for $98 million, according to official information.

Tocumen International Airport, in Panama City , is the country’s main air terminal and a major regional hub. Known as the ‘Hub of the Americas’, it connects dozens of destinations in the Americas and Europe, and handles a large portion of the international passenger traffic that crosses Panama each year.

Tocumen’s infrastructure has grown with the addition of Terminal 2, which increased its capacity to 25 million passengers annually and expanded its boarding gates. Between January and October 2026, Tocumen recorded 19.81 million passenger movements, 15% more than in the same period of 2025.

By the end of 2026, Tocumen projects exceeding 180,000 air operations and 260,000 metric tons of cargo, according to figures released today.