Three Airports – One Operator: Columbus (Colón), Rio Hato and David

President Mulino came up with the idea for three Airport terminals, Columbus (Colón), Rio Hato and David to work under one operator.  The government announced that it will publish an expression of interest in order to invite international companies with extensive airport management experience to give a concession for the development of the terminals of Columbus, Rio Hato and David.  According to the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, the decision was taken after a meeting he held with the directors of the Tocumen International Airport and the Civil Aeronautics Authority. 

“The idea is to be a single concession (an operator of international airports of vast solvency), for the three terminals,” stated Mulino, who asserted that currently Panama does not have a single dollar of profit from any of those airports. “On the contrary, money is lost and a lot, while airports like Rio Hato and Colón are deteriorating,” he added.  “It is unheard of to have two airports of such magnitude without anything happening around, the idea is to grant all three under one operator and extract from the State and Tocumen that headache so that they work well,” pointed out the delegate.  The government indicated that an entire database will be made available to interested airport operators so that, in a prudent time, they can obtain all the information they need for the use of the terminals.