At 12:56 on Friday afternoon, the ground under southern Panama lurched hard enough to empty one of Latin America's biggest connecting hubs. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake, centred on the Azuero Peninsula, shook Panama City about 200 kilometres away, and within minutes Tocumen International Airport had stopped every arrival and departure and walked its passengers out of the terminal.

For a few hours on 9 October 2026, the airport that connects much of Latin America to itself simply went quiet. Copa Airlines jets heading for their home base were suddenly looking for somewhere else to land, and air traffic controllers in Colombia and Costa Rica found themselves running Panama's overflow.

Runways shut, terminal emptied

Tocumen's response followed its emergency plan to the letter. Both runways were closed, flights were suspended, and passengers and administrative staff were evacuated as a precaution while crews inspected the runways, taxiways, terminal buildings and the control tower. Nothing could take off or land until engineers had confirmed the tower was safe to work in.

That matters more at Tocumen than at most airports. It is the hub for Copa Airlines, a carrier built around connecting traffic between North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, and it handled nearly 21 million passengers in 2025. When Tocumen stops, missed connections spread across an entire continent.

The inspections came back clean. In a statement reported by Panamanian media, the airport said the checks had found no damage that would stop it resuming activities, and flights restarted on Friday afternoon. The commercial area reopened, and immigration and customs officers returned to their posts. The airport also said it would ask SINAPROC, Panama's civil protection agency, for a further inspection of its facilities.

Copa's fleet scattered across the region

While the runways were closed, inbound aircraft had to go elsewhere. Panama's Civil Aviation Authority listed eight Copa flights diverted to Cartagena and Barranquilla in Colombia, with others sent to further alternate airports. Colombia's civil aviation authority, Aerocivil, designated seven Colombian airports as alternates: San Andrés, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cali, Rionegro and Montería.

Costa Rica took its share too. AERIS, which operates Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José, said it expected seven flights diverted from Panama, and reports said some long-haul flights bound for Panama ended up in San José and Bogotá. Two Copa flights from Lima and Santiago de Chile were reported to have landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Once Tocumen reopened, Copa said it was prioritising the return of the diverted aircraft and warned of delays and schedule changes over the following hours. Passengers holding tickets issued on or before 9 October for travel on 9 or 10 October can change their dates free of charge, with no fare difference, for travel up to 31 October.

A major quake with limited early damage

Away from the airport, the earthquake was the strongest to hit Panama in decades and caused real damage in the central provinces. A church and nearby buildings were damaged in Penonomé, in Coclé province, and homes were damaged in Herrera. Early reports from Panamanian authorities said no deaths had been confirmed, though the full picture was still emerging. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami threat message for nine countries, then said the threat had passed.

The Panama Canal Authority reported that the canal kept operating normally, and the USGS recorded a magnitude 6.6 aftershock at 15:25 local time, plus several more above magnitude 5.5. More shaking is possible, which is why airlines and the airport are asking travellers to check their flight status before heading to PTY.

NBC News report on the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that shook Panama on 9 October 2026.

For an airport, the measure of an earthquake is not the magnitude but the inspection report. Tocumen's came back clean within an afternoon, and by Friday evening the job had shifted from emergency response to the slower work of getting a scattered airline back home.

Sources: USGS, Tocumen International Airport, Autoridad Aeronáutica Civil de Panamá, Aerocivil, Tico Times, Aviacionline, Infobae, PRESDA