Asking for a little feedback since I'm ignorant of Panama travel much.
I need to book a flight from Panama City to David, where I'll catch a car service and boat to Isla Palenque.

I don't want to do early morning so I'd be on a Copa flight from PTY which doesn't land until 1700, and then we still need the car and boat transfer to the island. I can do that, but Air Panama has an option from PAC-DAV which lands a couple hours earlier (and a back up flight about the same time as the Copa one). I've read a ton of mixed reviews on the reliability and overall shadiness of Air Panama, and am wondering if that would be a risky move and I should just stick with Copa and travel out to PTY for the flight. Any thoughts?

For the return we're just doing a private helicopter from the island right to PTY, so it's only a one-way issue.

It's a short flight so I don't place a big deal on safety and leaving from PAC could be a tiny bit more convenient than PTY, but if it was me i'd rather take the CM flight.
The Hampton in David is fairly new and functional, maybe consider the transfer to Palenque early the next day?

Air Panama is ok but not an airline I trust much. I only fly them as my last option. I do enjoy flying the Fokker 50s and PAC is a lot more convenient than PTY if going into the city.

It's a short flight so the chances of something going seriously wrong are quite low.

This depend where you are located. If you are arriving in PTY and go to DAV the best way is use Copa. The limitation of Copa is the the flight offers. Have one flight per day in the morning and in the afternoon only 4 per week.

If you are located in Panama city before this trip maybe will be good travel with Air Panama, because use a different airport and is so close from Panama City. Other things about Air Panama is the luggage allowance include in the rate.

Someone love travel with air panama and others love travel with Copa. Depend of each person, for example my mother-in-law doesn't like Air Panama because they are smaller planes but my dad like because arriving to Albrook airport.

Huh? A short flight has almost the same number of opportunities for something to go seriously wrong as a long flight.

To clarify, we are going to be in Panama City for a couple of days beforehand, so flying out of either airport is an option.
Once we arrive at DAV, we have about an hour car ride to a short boat ride to the resort on Isla Palenque, so getting in a little earlier is a benefit.
My primary concern was Air Panama not being consistent or reliable and would Copa be a safer bet, even if it puts us to the resort a couple hours later. Copa does give us the Business class option, which is nice, even though I know it isn't much on a quick flight.

I want to book
PTY-DAV July 2, 2025
7:48am - 9:00am
- or -
4:05 pm - 5:28 pm

DAV-PTY July 9, 2025.
9:41am - 10:48am
-or-
6:17pm - 7:22pm

Is it too far out to book since they could change the schedule during the next six months?
How static or dynamic is their PTY-DAV schedule?

They run a morning and afternoon flight pretty reliably for many years. The main problem is that DAV doesn't have an instrument landing*, so flights are subject to delays and cancellation due to weather. But I don't think that prevents you from booking it now.


*I'm not a pilot, so unsure of the jargon