Queue Solutions Helps Tocumen International Airport Manage Queues
Panama is a transcontinental country located in Central America world famous for being the home of the Panama Canal. Its capital, Panama City, is where almost half of the country’s four million people live. Tocumen International Airport (IATA: PTY) is the main international airport serving Panama City. 18 airlines fly out of Tocumen and it is the hub of the country’s flag carrier Copa Airlines. In 2019 Tocumen handled over 16 million passengers. Construction of the airport’s Terminal 2 began in 2013 with an investment of US$780 million. The project included diverting the Tocumen river, four new direct access lanes to the airport and the construction of the new 20 gate terminal. The new terminal was officially inaugurated on April 29, 2019 and started operations on June 22, 2022.
In fitting out the new terminal Tocumen’s management understood that queuing is a feature of almost every stage of the passenger journey. Queues are required to manage waiting passengers in an orderly way ensuring an equitable first come, first served process. Queues at check-in, baggage drop, security, border control and customs all require passenger guidance and control. For this purpose, Tocumen turned to Queue Solutions QueueMaster™ retractable belt stanchions. QueueMaster™ is one of the largest selling retractable belt stanchions in the world. The model chosen by Tocumen featured a satin stainless finish to match the airport’s modern aesthetic. Tocumen also realized the advantage of Queue Master’s extra length belt. At 11’ QueueMaster’ s belt is more than 45% longer than the industry standard 7.5’ belt. This means you need 45% fewer stanchions to create a given length of barrier.
The Tocumen marketing team also chose to enhance the airports branding by having Queue Solutions custom print the QueueMaster™ belts with the airport’s iconic logo. This added a look of sophistication to the queue systems with the airports dark blue corporate color reflecting well with the satin stainless finish of the stanchions.
Other factors considered by the procurement team in the selection of QueueMaster™ was its robust construction, vital in high pedestrian traffic areas such as airports. Excellent finish quality and the ready availably of low-cost replacement parts were also considered during the bid process. The result of the selection process was the airport authority ordering QueueMasters to equip the entire North Terminal. Queue Solutions was pleased to be able to assist in this ambitious project and to have a large presence in this major Central American travel hub.