Just flew Copa a few times in the past week, lovely service as always. Worked on 737s for 6 years, but I'm not a technical genius with them. Best I can find is the max range (on the current versions) is 3000 nautical miles, 3450 miles, give or take.

The 4 longest flights CM has (or is introducing) are SFO 3320 miles, EZE 3313 miles, GIG 3285 miles and GRU 3154 miles.

So if that max range is right, CM doesn't have an issue pushing the range. But I think that's cutting it a bit close, so I feel like the info I have might be wrong.

But it brings me to my bigger question. CM seems to be wanting to expand, they've gone almost as far south as they can, there's a few more minor Brazilian cities they could go to, but it seems the expansion is going north, introducing Villahermosa, Puebla, New Orleans and San Francisco.

Do you guys think that's it? I think with the new connect miles program they might want to lure more US/Canada based fliers. Do you think there's range/room for YVR or SEA? I don't think PDX makes a lot of sense, but YVR would be perfect for me, but I think there's enough traffic they could potentially steal from UA who would prefer to connect in PTY rather than IAH. I know I'd much rather fly out of YVR at 2200 arrive in PTY in the early morning and be able to make 1 stop to various points in Colombia or Central/South America while avoiding IAH. I love flying Copa, PTY is a fantastic airport to transit at, no customs, no hassle.

Where else in the US/Canada do you guys think they could/should/would expand to?

I'd be all for YVR or YYC.

I was puzzled at their additions of Puebla and Villahermosa. Copa already flies 5x daily to PTY from MEX (plus 1x daily to BOG), which is only 1.5 hrs from Puebla. Villahermosa is a Pemex/oil center. Definitely not a tourist destination. (It's the most unpleasant climate I've yet encountered in Mexico -- 40 deg C heat with high humidity.) Maybe they think there's enough Pemex/government customers to make that city work.

There's another route they do that even tops the four you mentioned in distance -- PTY-MVD is 3,396 mi. (I'll be flying that one soon.)

MVD at 3385 miles disagrees with you

The flights were just under 7 hours this weekend

Sorry, forgot about that one! I wanna do the MVD route too. The biggest issue for me is getting to Copa.

YVR-YYZ isn't a quick trip, nor is it cheap. SFO is quicker, but not that cheap either. So lots of times a positioning flight won't really make it worth my while. But YVR-PTY-MDE would be brilliant. SEA would be great as it'd have to be a night flight and I could either buy a cheap flight or drive during the day instead of first thing in the morning like for the UA flights I take.

This could all be moot though as I don't know the range. As I said IF 3450 is the max, I'm not sure an airline would risk flying 3385. That's a REALLY slim buffer zone. But what do I know?

Rankourabu, did you get an upgrade on that? I've flown them enough times to know what it's like, but obviously never that long. But again if the flight is 7 hours and I have a row to myself, or at the very least the middle seat isn't occupied, I'm willing to do it. I need the segments next year, but going YVR-YYZ-EZE-MVD sounds a lot less appealing than YVR-SFO-PTY-MVD. Especially because I really enjoy transiting at PTY, it's such a breeze.

Yes, upgraded on YYZ-PTY-MVD as a 1K no problem (+companion)

On the way back, I applied an RPU, it wasnt necessary, free upgrades would have been easy, but since they only pulled 1 (instead of 2) RPUs, I just let it go as an RPU.

All flights were pretty full in the back, and half-empty upfront, until they filled it with bid-upgrades after all elites and staff were already in J.

With the Canadian cities it is up to the Canadian government and the distance the plane can fly. Copa wanted more for Montreal/Toronto but that is all they are allowed.

My guess is PHX is next. With their network they can get into small cities where no one else can compete.

Indeed, we have a government that subsidizes Air Canada by preventing competition from flying to/from Canada.

Planing a trip to South America and South Africa to Europe from YYC on an AP award ticket. Never done 'Souths" or Copa. How is the 7 hrs flight in J. Need to get to PTY as well with even higher mileage. Stopping at EZE or GIG. Overall plan is; YYC-----GIG/EZE-----JNB-----Europe----- YYC
Partner prefers comfort, will consider overnights.