Originally Posted by ricktoronto

PTY has little x-ray/security stands at the gates that are at best (for flights to Canada anyway) lackadaisical because they like to chat to each other or you while the bag goes through thus nobody seems to look at the monitors. Since they know you arrived on a flight that was secure and the stuff they sell in the terminal does not include machetes and such, you can imagine they think it is a bit of security theatre. Maybe to USA they are more diligent, because USA calls for supplemental security at some airports, and Canada never did (in SJO for example they do not do this at all for Canada). SAL followed the lead from PTY (and MGA does nothing) but can clear 5 arriving flights at 7 a.m. in 20 minutes. They have it down to an art, and as a hub, they should.

On your outbound you just walk to the gate, tip - take the map out of the in flight magazine. PTY overhead flight gate screens are horrible and do not cycle through all destinations ( I am trying to recall but I think on the walls, there are larger and more complete ones) so Bogota should be good (B) and Washington (W) not so good. Maybe ask at the gate when you arrive or if you are in J at the Copa Club (which is also quite hard to find - no signage in the terminal where it is found).

At times they park arriving flights away from the gate and then bus you to the terminal (still after security) but even then they are probably OK for 75 minutes. Copa will hold long haul flights (to USA/Canada) if the inbound is late. Luggage is never an issue. I have connected late inbound from MGA outbound to SJO and had 15 minutes and the luggage arrived.