Tocumen International Airport Panama — Local services in Tocumen

I was on a connecting flight from Columbia back to the United States and i had to change planes in Panama. Upon arriving to Panama, I saw that my flight was delayed (from 6:35pm-9:00pm). It was not a problem, it gave me time to enjoy food and drink at the bar near my gate (211). As it became time to board the plane, i made my way to the gate. It was then that i was told by one of the COPS that i needed to go thru inspection before boarding the plane. I complied and proceeded to the inspection checkpoint. As i went thru the inspection, both of my cigarette lighters were confiscated without explanation or warning by the COPS attendants. I asked why was my personal property being taken and this is when everything went bad. I was told to leave the lighters and board the plane, again with no explanation and no prohibited items signs posted. There were numerous attendants at the checkpoint and in my opinion, not one person was courteous or professional. Instead, because I began to ask questions, i was confronted with what seemed to be intimidation and rude behavior. The attendants now told me to leave my property or i would not board the plane and miss my flight. It was then i began to ask for a supervisor so that I could at the least receive an explanation as to why my personal property was being taken away from me. Upon asking for a supervisor numerous times in English and Spanish, I was ignored by the COPS attendants. Instead, they only responded with the same rudeness and intimidation as mentioned before. Only after standing at the checkpoint for several minutes was i then told that a woman who had been standing there the entire time was a supervisor. Upon encountering this woman who was supposedly a supervisor, things went from bad to worse. As I tried to talk to the woman, she got got on her cell phone and totally began to ignore me while giving a look of irritation in my direction. It was at this point, I could tell that no one intended to answer my questions nor help me understand what exactly was happening. I began to ask for names and identification numbers so that I could board my flight and file a complaint later. It was then that one of the initial COPS attendants barked out "Luis!". I asked for more information that he would not provide me. I then asked the woman who was identified as a supervisor for her information. It was then she barked out "Maria Moreno!". I asked for more identification information in which she also declined to provide. At this moment, another gentleman came thru the checkpoint. In an attempt to help me understand what was going on, he asked the COPS attendants what was the problem. They responded to him with the same rudeness and unprofessional behavior that I was experiencing. Eventually telling the man, in what seemed like another intimidation tactic, that if he continued to speak for me, he would also his his flight. Understandably, the man gathered his things and proceeded to board the plane. Feeling defeated and disregarded, I also began to gather my things and head towards the plane. At this moment, in what seemed to be surely another act of intimidation, the woman who was identified as a supervisor instructed another COPS attendant to follow me to the gate. Once I got to the gate and scanned my boarding pass with the airline attendant at the gate, the COPS attendant retrieved my passport and began to write down my name and passport information. After doing so, the COPS attendant proceeded to go and stand at the door of the plane while giving me a look of what seemed to be irritation and possibly suspicion. After boarding the plane, I could see and hear the COPS attendant also tell a flight attendant what just happened with me and the lighters at the checkpoint, furthering the feeling of an attempt at intimidation. All it would have taken was a sign that stated prohibited items or an explanation as to why my personal property was confiscated and this could have all...

TRAVELERS BE AWARE OF THIS AIRPORT

This so called modern facility is DESIGNED FOR YOU TO LOOSE you flight connection.

Let me explain a bit more, when you arrived to terminals below 100 gates and need to go to gate 225 you'll be carrying your luggage for about 25+ MIN WALKING on VERY FAST PACE.

YOUR luggage must have rollers in order for you to move quickly from one end to the other since there not carts that you can rent to bring your personal belongings.

BUYER BE AWARE, this is NOT an INCLUSIVE airport since people who has health conditions, or during flight become sick, have back issues, elderly, family with kids, developmental disabled, NOT A FIT INDIVIDUAL and any person who have mobility issues mostly likely you Will be LOOSING the connection if you book it with less than 2-3 hours to on board the next flight apart.

They don't have the proper equipment to transport your suitcase if became damaged, your wheels don't work or you have multiple bags as the slide moving floors MOST of the time DON'T WORK.

MY CONCLUSION OF THIS AIRPORT HAS A BIG LOGISTICS PROBLEM and HEALTH HAZARDOUS.

If you got to your gate and was changed, I CAN ASSURE you that you WON'T HAVE THE TIME TO MAKE IT BACK to the the next gate as it'll take you 25+ min to go return after you spent 25+ min to get there without the proper equipment then you'll need to gasp for air to go back ( this resting time will depend on how healthy your are) but without the time any way because you need to be 30 min at least before at the proper gate for departure.

You'll be walking for 1 hr straight on VERY FAST PACE.

I am fit man, without any healthcare issues and I WON'T set a foot back to Panama airport until this change as surely this place Will take my working money and blame it on my inability to be on time.

If you are considering Panama as touch point then BE WILLING TO LOOSE MONEY, TIME, BUSINESS AND PERHAPS YOUR HEALTH. Btw,. Don't expect grace, cortesi, nor an honest answer about the location that you are going as you ask representatives that work there to tell you the truth about where are you going because every time you ask how far is your gate most of them will tell you is 5 min away 😫😡 so DON'T trust nobody and JUST KEEP WALKING AS FAST...

Most inhospitable international airport in the west. NO comfortable seats in the airport except the massage chairs which will beep at you loudly if you dare to sit in an unoccupied one without paying 60$/an hour for sitting in an unmoving chair and the bench seats which say have the "priceless" logo on them which ONLY security personel are allowed to sit on them, despite being in a public area, NOT a secure location. The scant number of places to plug in your phone or other electronic device have NO chairs there and certaintly not a table to put your laptop on. You must instead sit on the cold tile floor. There are no carpets anywhere so if you need to sit on the floor it will be that same cold tile floor. The wifi is only free for a half hour and after that you get charged 20$ per day (even higher hourly rates for less time). The seats for paying customers are all VERY hard flat plastic seats with metal/hard plastic arm rests between every seat. No comfort there. If you dare to fall asleep late at night because your connecting flight is during the 9 or 10 hours when no flights arrive or leave, expect to be woken by security guards who will demand to see your passport (as if there was ANY WAY you could have gotten into the international departures terminal without showing your passport. (The entire airport is only for international flights). if you go to terminal 2 (possibly in terminal 1 too) the food court upstairs does have software plastic seats that are shaped to the shape of a human being so they are less uncomfortable than the rest of the airports customer hostile seating. ONLY use this airport if you have no connecting flight or the wait between flights is not long. This airport appears to look clean and modern but the better description is sterile and cold towards paying customers.

My photos of the comfortable unavailable seats and the hard inhospitable seats and they barely passable ones are in the...