{
  "response": {
    "Key": "US-PA",
    "orig": {
      "code": "US",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "United States"
    },
    "dest": {
      "code": "PA",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "Panama"
    },
    "faq": {
      "q0": {
        "question": "Which U.S. cities can I fly from to reach Panama?",
        "answer": "From the United States, you can fly nonstop to Panama City from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, New York JFK, Newark, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, and Boston. Miami is the busiest gateway with the most frequent service. One-stop options via hubs like Bogotá or San José are available from smaller cities. Travellers often choose Miami for frequency and price, while others prefer direct flights from their nearest major airport."
      },
      "q1": {
        "question": "Which airports in Panama are the best to fly into?",
        "answer": "Tocumen International Airport in Panama City is the primary gateway, receiving most flights from the US and offering the best connections to the rest of the country via Copa Airlines. For travellers heading to western Panama, such as Boquete or Bocas del Toro, David's Enrique Malek Airport receives some direct flights from the US and provides a convenient alternative."
      },
      "q2": {
        "question": "How long is the flight to Panama?",
        "answer": "From Miami to Panama City non-stop flights typically take around 3 hours. From Houston or Atlanta, non-stops are about 4 to 5 hours. One-stop itineraries from other U.S. cities often range from 6 to 9 hours total travel time. Return times are similar."
      },
      "q3": {
        "question": "Are there direct flights to Panama?",
        "answer": "Many non-stop flights connect the United States to Panama, primarily to Panama City's Tocumen Airport. Airlines like Copa Airlines, American, United, and Delta serve routes from Miami, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Flight times range from about 3.5 to 6 hours."
      },
      "q4": {
        "question": "Which U.S. airports are usually cheapest for flying to Panama?",
        "answer": "Miami and Fort Lauderdale are usually the cheapest and most convenient US gateways to Panama, with frequent direct flights to Panama City on multiple airlines. Houston and Orlando also offer competitive fares and direct options, while travellers from smaller US cities often find the best deals by connecting through these hubs."
      },
      "q5": {
        "question": "Which airlines fly to Panama?",
        "answer": "United, American, Delta and Copa Airlines fly direct from major U.S. cities to Panama City. Spirit also offers budget options."
      },
      "q6": {
        "question": "When is the cheapest time to fly to Panama?",
        "answer": "The cheapest months to fly from the United States to Panama are April, May, and June, when fares are lowest and holiday demand is light — avoid late November through December, when prices climb sharply around Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the best deal, book about 13 to 16 weeks ahead, and aim to depart on a Wednesday in the afternoon or evening, which tends to be cheaper than weekend or Tuesday flights.",
        "methodology": "This 'good deal' estimate shows a representative best price for each departure date across roughly a 12-month window (about 3 months back and 9 months forward). It is built from real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, accumulated into a price history for each departure date. Rather than weighting all of that history equally, we apply exponential time decay so recent prices dominate — a price seen yesterday counts almost in full, one from about a month ago roughly a third, and prices from a few months back very little — giving a figure that tracks today's market instead of a stale long-run average. Clear price outliers are removed before any calculation, departure dates with no observations are filled in from nearby dates, and the resulting curve is lightly smoothed so it reads as a clean seasonal trend rather than day-to-day noise. This booking-window guidance is built from the same real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, re-grouped by how many days before departure each price was seen (from the departure day out to about 180 days ahead) across the route's price history. At each booking lead time we report the 25th-percentile price — the cheaper end of what travelers were quoted, rather than the rock-bottom minimum (which can be a fluke) or the average (which is pulled up by expensive last-minute fares). The buy-or-wait advice then applies a risk premium that grows as departure approaches, since seat availability shrinks and prices become less predictable; using that adjusted curve we flag windows where waiting is likely to save a meaningful amount (at least $20 or 5%) versus windows where booking now is the better call. Isolated single-day recommendations are filtered out, so the advice only reflects a window that holds for several days in a row. The US departure cities with nonstop service to this destination, their weekly flight frequencies, typical flight times, airlines, and red-eye availability are compiled from our flight-schedule database, which combines published airline timetables, U.S. government schedule data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and observed flight operations from the EUROCONTROL/OpenSky Open Performance Data Initiative (OPDI). We identify every US airport with scheduled nonstop service to the destination, group them into their metropolitan areas, and rank the cities by scheduled weekly departures; the typical flight time is the median scheduled duration, and red-eye availability is flagged from scheduled local departure and arrival times. The cheapest day of the week and time of day to depart are drawn from the same large sample of real fares Priceline users found on this route in the last 72 hours, grouped by the day of the week and by the time-of-day window of the outbound departure, with the lowest and average price reported for each."
      },
      "q7": {
        "question": "How far in advance should I book flights to Panama?",
        "answer": "For flights from the United States to Panama, the optimal booking window is about 13 to 16 weeks before departure, when fares average around $710, though peak travel periods like holidays and Panama's dry season may require booking even earlier.",
        "methodology": "This booking-window guidance is built from the same real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, re-grouped by how many days before departure each price was seen (from the departure day out to about 180 days ahead) across the route's price history. At each booking lead time we report the 25th-percentile price — the cheaper end of what travelers were quoted, rather than the rock-bottom minimum (which can be a fluke) or the average (which is pulled up by expensive last-minute fares). The buy-or-wait advice then applies a risk premium that grows as departure approaches, since seat availability shrinks and prices become less predictable; using that adjusted curve we flag windows where waiting is likely to save a meaningful amount (at least $20 or 5%) versus windows where booking now is the better call. Isolated single-day recommendations are filtered out, so the advice only reflects a window that holds for several days in a row."
      },
      "q8": {
        "question": "Do I need a visa to travel to Panama?",
        "answer": "United States nationals do not need a visa to visit Panama for tourism. They can stay visa-free for up to 180 days.\n\nA quick note: this is general guidance to help you plan, not official immigration advice — entry rules can change and can depend on your nationality and circumstances, so please confirm the current requirements with the relevant embassy or official government source before you travel.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "article_lookup"
        ],
        "references": [
          {
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Panama",
            "title": "Visa policy of Panama",
            "favicon": "https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/panama/entry-requirements",
            "title": "Panama entry requirements — GOV.UK",
            "favicon": "https://www.gov.uk/favicon.ico"
          }
        ],
        "preopenedReferences": true,
        "stageOnly": true
      },
      "q10": {
        "question": "How easy is it to travel within Panama after I arrive?",
        "answer": "Domestic flights from Panama City connect to David, Bocas del Toro and the San Blas Islands. Buses and rental cars are practical for moving along the Pan-American Highway and to nearby towns. Arriving at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City gives you the most onward travel options by air and road."
      }
    }
  }
}