While Emirates has dropped the idea of launching the Dubai-Panama City route, Lufthansa is planning and on 2 March 2016 operated the first direct flight between Frankfurt and Panama City.
The German airline operates five weekly flights between Frankfurt and Panama City base on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The flights will be honored with Airbus A340-300 aircraft configured in 3 classes: 18 seats in Business Class, 19 seats in Premium Economy and 261 seats in Economy Class. The flight distance is 9070 kilometers and averages 11 hours and 20 minutes.
Flights Frankfurt - Panama City will be operated according to the following schedule:
NEXT TO 484: 10 - 15: 16 PTY 40 x343
LH485 PTY 18: 45 - 11: 35 + 1 BUT
Lufthansa is in direct competition with Condor on this route. Air France, Iberia, KLM, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines (from 4 to 2016) also fly from Europe to Panama City.
Star Alliance member Lufthansa shares his code on this route with Copa Airlines, which does not offer trans-Atlantic flights, but links to 73 from destinations in Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Costa Rica. In contrast, Copa Airlines passengers can benefit from the Lufthansa Group's global network, which includes 261 destinations from 101 countries.