Direct flights to Canada in January

The news was revealed in an exclusive interview with Canada’s new Ambassador to Panama, Patricia Langan-Torell, who took up her post In August.

The long awaited announcement coincided with the arrival in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, of a Panamanian delegation to discuss a free trade agreement between the two countries.

The delegation was warmly received by its hosts, but got the cold shoulder from the Canadian weather with an early winter snowfall.

The Canadian airline carrier has not yet been announced, but the selection is down to two companies.

The country’s national airline is Air Canada which, some years ago absorbed it’s main rival Canadian Pacific.

In the early days, the Canadian operator will ferry passengers both ways.

Panama’s Copa Airlines will be watching carefully to see whether the route will carry enough passengers to make the route profitable for the carrier.

The ambassador, whose staff has been enlarged to include a trade commissioner, will also be working hard to smooth the path for Panamanian’s seeking visas to Canada.

Currently visas are processed at the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala, and while the embassy in Panama actively promotes educational and tourism opportunities in Canada, many Panamanians have expressed frustration at the procedure and cost of obtaining approval to travel.

This was somewhat eased during the ambassadorship of Jose Herran Lima, now posted to Mexico, with the introduction of an office to vet applications and help citizens complete forms and provide the necessary support documents.

The completed applications are then sent by diplomatic pouch to Guatemala. and when the visa is approved, returned to the embassy in Panama.

This procedure has eliminated the high cost of sending applications and passports by courier to Guatemala.

The long term strategy is to persuade the Canadian immigration authorities to open a visa office in Panama, which could also serve to process applications from Costa Rica.

But, the ambassador warns, that could be a drawn out process.

As an interim measure she will be working on persuading Ottawa to make life simpler for business travelers with multiple entry visas.

Meanwhile she has hit the ground running in Panama, and is deeply involved in planning the expansion of the embassy and its future move from the International Trade Center to a new location in Punta Pacifica.

She is also familiarizing herself with the seven educational projects for children and women, which the embassy runs using funds from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Like her predecessor, she has already developed an attachment for the people of Panama and is quickly making friends across the city.

The ambassador plans extend that process by extending her knowledge of the country and visiting and spending time in every province during the coming year.

She will be working closely with the Canadian Association of Panama, which is involved in projects to assist indigenous people and the less fortunate of the country’s inhabitants.

On the personal front she has had to make some big sacrifices. Her husband is still working in Toronto, and her daughter is studying at the University of Ottawa, where one of her close friends is the daughter of the last ambassador.

She will join her family at Christmas.

Like many residents, she will be looking with hungry anticipation to the first direct flights to Canada. In the meantime she will have to endure the long U.S. stopovers in Miami, Houston, Atlanta or Newark.