Ecuador & Panama

Not long after our last trip we booked our next getaway. The plan was to visit my girlfriends family in Ecuador for two weeks and then continue to explore the country of Panama for another two weeks or so and fly back home from there. Usually booking flights with seperate departure airports costs a lot of money. Luckily this did not apply for KLM and we found well priced flights. On the outbound we would fly From Zürich to Quito via Amsterdam, on he inbound from Panama City to Zürich via Amsterdam. Soon I noticed how incredibly low priced KLM's Premium Comfort Class was and we didn't think twice and bought the upgrade for all legs for roughly 200€ / 240$ per person.

Flying on KLM from Zürich to Quito

The first leg of this long journey to Ecuador was a short, uneventful flight from Zürich to Amsterdam on a beautiful Tuesday morning. Our flight would leave at 7:00am so we spent the night at an airport hotel to avoid having to get up even earlier than we already had to.

Queues at the airport were short and soon we boarded our aircraft, a 17-year old Boeing 737-8K2(WL), registered as PH-BCA. Boarding was completed on time but we had to wait twenty minutes for pushback due to slot restrictions at Amsterdam-Schiphol. After finally pushing back, we taxied to runway 28 where we lifted off with a delay of thirty minutes.

As soon as we reached cruising altitude, the crew (which was lovely as usual on KLM) provided drinks and some banana bread for a little snack, which tasted just alright. Not long after we already started descending towards Amsterdam, overflying Brussels. Despite our late departure we touched three minutes ahead of schedule, which unfortunately doesn’t mean a lot at Schiphol Airport. As always it took over twenty minutes to reach our gate.

After a very short layover at Schiphol Airport, we boarded PH-BQI, a 2004-built Boeing 777-206(ER). My seat for this 11-hour flight to Quito, Ecuador would be 11D in KLM‘s Premium Comfort Class. Premium Comfort is arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration, resulting in two seats less per row making the seats much wider. Row 11 is a bulkhead row so the legroom was absolutely fantastic, I could stretch my legs fully. Unfortunately we didn't get a window seat-pair becuase they cost upwards of 70€ to reserve per seat, which I didn't feel like paying.

At the seat there’s a pillow, blanket and noise cancelling headphones. Additionally the crew handed out a refreshment towel (unfortunately packaged, identical to Economy Class), a bottle of water a menu and a small amenity kit, containing a toothbrush, eyeshades, a pen and earplugs.

We pushed back some twenty minutes behind schedule and taxied to runway 24. At 10:47am, 32 minutes behind schedule, we lifted off, heading to Latin America.

Not long after takeoff the crew served drinks and some salted nuts as an appetiser. I had to try KLM‘s new signature Mocktail called ‚Royal Blue Legend‘ which was very pleasant.

When collecting the glasses the crew asked wether I had decided on the main course yet. I asked wether I could try both the chicken thigh with mashed sweet potatoes and the salmon salad, which they happily agreed to. Very soon after lunch was served, consisting of a rice salad with prawns, cheese and a warm bread roll and in my case two of the three main course options.

The prawns were really delicious, as was the chicken thigh main course, both have to be among the best airplane food I‘ve had. The prawns tasted fresh and the chicken was juicy and full of flavour. The sweet potato mash was perfect as well, great job KLM. The salmon salad was okay, but it lacked some flavour. I didn’t really enjoy the cheese, maybe just because I‘m used to better cheese at home. Overall though, lunch was really solid, definitely a step up compared to Economy Class. In my opinion they could make the service feel even more premium by removing the aluminium covers before serving.

After retrieving the trays, we were handed some stroopwafel ice cream, which I really enjoyed.

Some time after lunch I went up to door R2 to shoot some wingview images. One of the flight attendants noticed my camera and we started chatting. She really went the extra mile to help me get good photos and even offered me to sit in an unoccupied Business Class seat, how nice! I asked wether it would be possible to sit in said seat for landing, which after checking with the purser was happily accepted.

In my opinion this is what sets KLM apart from most other airlines. I mean their hard product is definitely very solid, but their crew just excels.

After a very short nap the crew offered some snacks and drinks, you definitely won’t ever leave a KLM flight hungry… When the same flight attendant from before come to retrieve my glass and some trash she brought me a KLM House, the ones you normally get when flying in Business Class. This flight just kept on getting better!

Shortly after there was another snack service with a choice between french fries and an egg sandwich. Of course I had to try both. The sandwich was okay, tasted like every other airplane sandwich you‘ve had but the fries surprised me. They tasted like they were freshly fried, no idea how they managed them to taste so good.

Two hours before landing the second meal service started. There was no choice, everyone got a pasta salad, some teriyaki chicken and an apple pie. Once again very good food, nothing to complain about. I just wish there had been a second option to choose from since not everyone enjoyes the same food.

Thirty minutes before landing, after the crew had mostly prepared the cabin for landing, the flight attendant from before came up to my seat to tell me that I could now move to seat 5K in Business Class.

I didn‘t have much time to test the seat so I can‘t give you a review on that, but it seemed nice and I definitely wouldn‘t mind spending my entire flight in one of these seats sometime in future.

On descend we overflew the city of Quito and soon we found ourselves on final approach for the over 4km long runway 36 of Quito‘s Mariscal Sucre airport. I spent the final minutes of the flight staring out the window and taking photos of the beautiful scenery that passed by.

Finally, we touched down one minute behind schedule. After reaching our gate, I went to visit the flight deck briefly, as I had never actually been inside a triple seven‘s flight deck before, despite having flown on the type multiple times before. It was nice chatting with the pilots about the flight and the challenges of flying to a high-altitude aiport such as Quito.

This was one of the best flights I have ever taken, mostly thanks to the amazing crew and the great Premium Comfort product. I would really recommend considering the upgrade if you ever fly KLM on a longhaul fight, especially when the upgrade happens to be so cheap.

Flying on Copa Airlines from Qutio to Panama City

After spending two weeks in the beautiful country of Ecuador, it was unfortunately time to leave the country. Ahead of us were two more weeks in the central american country of Panama.

Copa Airlines operates multiple daily flights between Quito and Panama City. Best suited for me was flight CM718 leaving Quito‘s Mariscal Sucre airport at 3:15pm.

As usual we arrived to the airport a bit earlier than necessary. Quito Mariscal Sucre airport is quite tiny, much smaller than you‘d think of an airport serving a city with more than a million inhabitants.

Baggage drop, security check and passport control all barely had queues and we were airside in a matter of ten minutes. In the international departures section of the only terminal there are a few restaurants and giftshops, as well as lots of seating. I don‘t recommend arriving hungry since the food is crazy expensive once you‘re airside.

After spotting some planes from the gate area it was eventually time to board. Boarding was completed on time and we pushed back on schedule. After taxiing to the back of runway 18 we lined up and took off a mere nine minutes behind schedule.

The flight was very uneventful and I will not go into too much detail. Like last year's Copa Airlines flight everything went smoothly and the flight was enjoyable.

After a flight time of 1:29h we touched down on runway 03R 18 minutes ahead of schedule. We taxied to a gate at the old terminal and were out of the plane within a few minutes.
I was lucky enough to finally catch a Privilege Style aircraft which was just pushing back. After convincing my girlfriend not to rush to exit we waited for a couple minutes for it to taxi by the window I was looking out of.

Spotting at Panama City Marcos A. Gelabert Airport

Panama City has a small airport very close to the city centre. I really wanted to check out the airport since Air Panama operates their Fokker 50 fleet out of the small airfield. I only went to one spot, which is the terrace of a McDonald's. We bought some ice cream and sat there for some time. Unfortunately my 70-200mm lens wasn't quite long enough to get interesting images and the sky was overcast, but it was still worth looking by.

Spotting at Panama City Tocument Airport

Tocumen Airport is quite an interesting airport from an aviation enthusiasts perspective. Mainly due to a few Boeing 727 freighters frequenting the airport. To my misfortune the UniWorld Cargo 727, which is based at PTY was undergoing some maintenance in Mexico at the time which left me with some hopes of catching an Aerosucre 727, which normally operates at night with few daytime movements only. Luckily on my second day in Panama City HK-5216, an Aerosucre Boeing 727 had some technical problems before departing very early in the morning. This left me with a chance of catching it‘s departure once they would resolve the problem. I arrived at the airport around 9am. I spent the entire day waiting (and of course catching lots of other cool planes) without any luck. Departure time was pushed further and further back as the day passed until eventually at 5pm I decided to abort the mission and return downtown.

Despite not getting lucky with the Boeing 727 I caught lots of planes landing and lining up to runway 03L, which is the less frequently used runway at MPTO.

Spotting in Bocas del Toro

After a week or so at the pacific coast of Panama we embarked on the jouney to Bocas del Toro, one of the most popular places in Panama. The main island has a small airport served by Air Panama's Fokker 50 fleet. Additionally there are a couple flights a week from San Jose, Costa Rica. There was some noise around the airport recently due to an accident involving one of Air Panama's Fokker 50's which slid off the runway upon landing in heavy rain. The aircraft was severly damaged but luckily no one died.

There are a couple of houses enclosed by the runway and the water. The people living there have to walk across the runway multiple times a day. Everyone clears the runway as soon as they hear the plane coming in, sometimes less than a minute before the Fokkers land or take off. Of course I couldn't pass on the opportunity to walk across an active runway!

Unfortunately the time of these Fokker 50's is very limited. Air Panama has already aquired two former Alaska Airlines Dash-8 Q400's which are due to replace the aging Fokker fleet.

Flying on Air Panama Fokker 50

After quite a lot of convincing my girlfriend agreed to fly back to Panama City on Air Panama instead of taking the bus (which would have taken us at least 13 hours). We bought the tickets the day before the flight for about 140USD per person, which for a short flight like this, is quite expensive.
Usually there are three flight a day, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening. Since we returned from Costa Rica the same day we had booked ourselves on the evening flight, just in case we'd be stuck at the boarder for longer than expected. Since all of that went very smoothly we were back well in time to catch the earlier flight. We went to the airport to ask the Air Panama employees wether they could get us on the earlier flight and they did so free of charge!

After a quick lunch we returned to the airport. The terminal is absolutely miniscule and there is no need to arrive more than 30 minutes before boarding. Obviously there is no line for security screening. There's a tiny waiting area with a pretty good view on the apron.

Our aircraft for the short flight back to the capital would be this 1993-built Fokker 50 which had joined the fleet in 2022. This would be my second Fokker 50 flight and quite likely my last ever.
Unfortunately we didn‘t get very good seats, 12D and 12F respectively. If you get to fly on a Fokker 50 make sure to sit in the frontmost rows to get the best views of the engine. But since I had gotten some very nice views on my Fokker 50 flight last summer I didn‘t care very much about the missing views and let my girlfriend take the windowseat instead.

We took off from runway 27 with a delay of 15 minutes. After takeoff we banked to the right and got some nice views of Bocas town and the airport we just took off from.

Shortly after the very friendly crew handed out tiny bottles of water. Other than that there is no inflight service, which for a 45-minute flight.

After a short cruise phase we already began descending towards Panama City, where it got a little bit bumpy. We made one final left hand turn over the Pacific Ocean, overflying lots of cargo ships waiting to enter the Panama Canal. We touched down super smoothly on runway 01 at Panama City Airport which had just been hit by heavy rainshowers before we arrived.

Deboarding and picking up our luggage went super smoothly and some ten minutes after touching down we were already outside.

Flying on KLM from Panama City to Zürich

As this flight is most likely going to be similar to the KLM flight from Amsterdam to Quito four weeks ago I will keep this review a little bit shorter. Also if you want to compare KLM‘s economy class product to their premium comfort class, I‘d recommend you read my review on this same exact flight from last year in economy class.

We got to the airport some two hours before our flight would depart. Tocumen Airport Terminal 2 is quite new and not very busy usually. Baggage drop, passport control and security check only took roughly 15 minutes to clear and I got to gate 204 just in time to photograph our aircraft arriving from Amsterdam.

Before boarding I strolled around the terminal and spotted some planes, usual business.

Our aircraft for today‘s flight KL758 would be a 2015 Boeing 777-306(ER), registered as PH-BVN. Boarding started more or less on time and soon we were sat in seat 11H and 11K respectively. We had reserved seats in advance this time because I really wanted a window seat to get some nice photos. Row 11 is a bulkhead row just like on the 777-200 since they feature an identical number of business class seats.

Like last time there was a pillow, blanket, headphones and a bottle of water at the seat. Once everyone was sat the crew handed out an amenity kit and the menu.

We pushed back a bit late and started taxiing to the runway while the sun was setting. After waiting for some birds to vacate the runway vicinity we lined up and the giant GE90‘s spooled up. We took off almost half an hour behind schedule at 7:18pm local time. On climbout we could see some thunderstorms in the back.

Soon after dinner service started. I went for the caribbean style chicken in coconut sauce with rice, beans and fried plantain. There was a salad with tuna, bread and cheese as well.
The salad lacked a dressing unfortunately but the tuna was very tasty. The main was really good, I absolutely loved it! Panama City‘s catering once again doesn‘t disappoint.
My girlfriend went for the pasta option which she liked as well.
The Merlot I had on the side was nice as well and would hopefully help me sleep a couple of hours. Unfortunately it took quite a while for the ice cream to arrive and when it did it was rock solid.

I went to sleep and woke up about four hours later just in time for a beautiful sunrise. Not sure if it‘s just me but I found it quite difficult to find comfortable sleeping positions in KLM‘s premium comfort seat.

Before breakfast I quickly got changed and brushed my teeth. Breakfast was served an hour and a half before arrival and consisted of scrambled eggs with sausage, a bread roll and a yogurt granola bowl. I had a coffee and an orange juice with it.
I loved the scrambled eggs and the bread roll and the yogurt granola bowl was also quite good. The sausage tasted really strange, it was very sweet. All in all an okay breakfast but not really different from what i‘ve had in economy class on other flights.

After the crew had collected the trays and asked for more coffee, we started descending towards Amsterdam. The views on approach were beautiful and we touched down at 12:00pm ten minutes ahead of schedule.

In summary I‘d definitely recommend flying premium comfort, especially if it‘s not a huge price bump from economy like in our case. We definitely felt much more relaxed when we arrived.

After a three hour layover it was time to board our final flight of this trip. KL1923 would be operated by a 2024 Embraer E195-E2. This would be my first time flying on the type so I was definitely somewhat excited for this final leg.

Due to the inbound being late we started boarding a bit late. To my fortune it turned out to be a bus gate. The aircraft looked stunning and I was looking forward to arriving on time in Zurich, because up until this point we were only running some fifteen minutes late which we could have easily made up in the air. We sat in row 17 seats A and C, which offered quite a good wingview.

After some time of nothing moving the captain announced that due to overcrowding we wouldn‘t receive a takeoff slot for another twenty minutes, pushing our departure time back even further.
We finally pushed back forty five minutes after our original departure time and ended up taking off a whole our behind schedule at 4:19pm.
And this happens literally every time I fly shorthaul from Amsterdam. It is quite frustrating since I love flying on KLM yet the ground experience at Schiphol is always a disaster.

Anyways, our Embraer climbed out of Schiphol like a rocket. What a lovely airplane! The cabin was super quiet even during takeoff, the seats are pretty wide with very good legroom, as usual on the Embraers in my experience.

During cruise we were handed out the usual KLM sandwich which I enjoyed with a cup of coffee to stay awake after the short night.
Soon after we started descending and we intercepted the ILS of runway 28. We landed with a delay and that concludes this memorable trip!