Copa Airlines wasn't the official airline of the Summit of Americas held recently in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
But lots of attendees from the Caribbean, Central America and South America flew in on the Panamanian airline, which added Port of Spain last year to its growing roster of underserved markets.
Parent company Copa Holdings (CPA), which also owns the smaller Colombian airline Aero Republica, serves 45 cities in 24 countries, including routes as far north as New York and Los Angeles.

With a growing "Hub of the Americas" base in Panama City, Copa Airlines flies passengers to a host of under-the-radar cities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In about 70% of the markets it serves, it has no competition.
Besides Port of Spain, it recently added new service to Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; and Valencia, Venezuela. The carrier also stepped up frequencies on several regular stops, including Caracas, Kingston and Havana.
Copa Airlines doesn't usually horn in on markets served by the bigger South American carriers, such as Chile's Lan Airlines (LFL) and Brazil's Tam Airlines (TAM). It prefers less-traveled paths, many with no more than 50 passengers hopping on board.
Meanwhile, Copa has been upgrading operations and aircraft at Aero Republica, which it acquired in 2005. It has also expanded the carrier's routes outside of Colombia.
Through the end of March, Copa continued to see strong traffic growth.
March's systemwide traffic rose 9.3% vs. the previous year, after a 9.5% rise in February. In the high season of January, typically one of the company's best months, traffic jumped 15.5%.
As the airline industry struggles to stay airborne, Copa continues to make plenty of money.
Copa boasts one of the highest margins in the airline industry. Its 2008 operating margin was 17.4%. That contrasts with Southwest's (LUV) 4.1%, Jet Blue's (JBLU) 2.8% and American's (AMR) -2.8%.
Before the swine flu outbreak, management expected 2009 operating margin on the high side of a 16% to 18% range.
"These guys have profit margins that are off the charts," said analyst Stephen Trent of Citigroup Investment Research. "For an airline to have double-digit profitability is almost unheard of."

Panama is an attractive commercial partner for the UAE due to its standing as a logistics and transport hub of global importance and the absence of restrictions on investments,' said the Consulate's Commercial Attaché, H.E. Cat L. Wall, at the occasion of Monday's Dubai premiere of one of the largest real estate projects in Panama City, the Megapolis Nortia Tower.
'The financial crisis has had little impact on our economy, our banks are stable and the Panama Canal is not significantly affected, either. We welcome the opportunity to open our doors to the UAE, to banks, businesses and investors,” Wall added. Despite the global economic crisis, the figures strongly depict numerous emerging opportunities for enhanced trade and investment with the Central American country. In 2008, Panama's economic growth was 9.27%, and in February 2009, despite the global economic crisis, it remained at 2.59%. The IMF subsequently forecast the country to post the highest growth in the entire Western Hemisphere.
As one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America and beyond, Panama has been dubbed by some analysts as the 'New Dubai' or 'the Dubai of Latin America.' Many see the reason for this to be partly due to the real estate boom capturing headlines from Rio to Riyadh.
Yet it can also be attributed to the country's solid foundation for global economic success, which includes political stability and an attractive investment environment consisting of modern asset protection laws, some of the strongest financial privacy laws in the world, the largest banking centre in Latin America, and - just like Dubai - it boasts the surrounding region's largest free port. Panama's economic artery is the Panama Canal, the single most important transport route in the Western hemisphere connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In an effort to remain a key logistics and trade hub in the West, in September 2007 work began on a $5.2bn project to widen the canal and double its capacity, enabling it to accommodate the largest cargo vessels. The expansion is expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs and further boost the economy well after its completion at the time of the Canal's centennial in 2014.
The reception at the DIFC showed that investors appear to be flocking to gain a share in Panama's booming markets. Located in the heart of Panama City's financial and retail district, Punta Paitilla, the Megapolis Nortia Tower is set to become the largest hotel in the world, boasting more than 4,000 rooms including 2,200 suites, all contained within 74 floors and spread over a built-up area of 190,000 m². With services and facilities of a five-star project, the Megapolis includes various restaurants, convention halls, a health club and wellness spa, and a 5,000 m² casino. Panama City is the capital of Panama, a tropical country at the junction of Central and South America. Regarded as an international business centre, visitors to this 'Crossroads of the Americas' can also enjoy its abundance of natural beauty such as rainforests, dormant volcanoes and hot springs nestled between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as the 365 tropical islands dotting the coastline.
The country's tourism authority recently released a Top Ten Wonders list, whose attractions can be enjoyed at any time of the year, since Panama is the only country in Central America to lie outside the Caribbean hurricane tract.

Panama property prices will be growing rapidly again as early as this August, according to overseas property portal Property Abroad. The country has been unaffected by the credit crunch, and the property market kept afloat by undeterred American retirees. Because of this, prices are largely un-dented, and transaction volumes remain steady, said emerging markets analyst Julie Liddle, a spokesperson for the portal.
"Panama property is still selling at a steady rate to American retirees and lifestyle buyers. Prices have been largely unaffected by the global downturn, because there has hardly been a downturn. Around the world people are realizing that property investment opportunities still exist abroad”, she explained.
"At the same time, Brits and Europeans tire of the abysmal interest rates and look at the better returns on offer from properties, and the latter will be further spurred on by the strengthening of the Pound. We predict that all this will evolve into a perfect storm, pushing investors to buy in the hottest markets in the next 2-4 months; and Panama will be high on that list," she finished. Property Abroad.com is currently advertising dozens of properties for sale in Panama, with prices starting from £41,000. Unlike many other UK based portals, Property Abroad doesn't just have off plan property, and not only property in the cities, the portal has dozens of resale properties, properties in the major cities, and throughout the rural areas of Panama. The portal even has a selection of commercial opportunities, prices up to £10million.