The story
Air Panamá Internacional was founded in 1967 as a joint venture between the government of Panama (67%) and Spanish airline Iberia (33%). When Iberia pulled out approximately ten years later, the airline became fully state-owned.
During the 1980s, when Panama was ruled by military dictator Manuel Noriega, the route network and aircraft fleet of Air Panamá went into decline because of the worsened financial and economic situation of the company, which led to Copa Airlines emerging as the largest airline of the country. All flight operations with Air Panamá Internacional ceased in December 1989 over the United States invasion of Panama. The only aircraft of the airline at that time, a leased Boeing 727. In January 1990, Air Panamá Internacional declared bankruptcy and ceased operations on December 2, 1990.
On July 11, 1991, there was an attempt by the government of Panama to relaunch the airline in summer of 1992 as Panama Air International with two Boeing 757s wet-leased from Avensa. However, this attempt failed. In 2005, Turismo Aéreo acquired the Air Panama branding and adopted its trademark rights.
From Wikipedia’s article on Air Panamá Internacional, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4