Clipper cargo horizons, Vol. 1, No. 12, December 1961

              HORIZONS
A Pan Am Publication About Worldwide Air Distribution • Vol. I, No. 12 • December, 1961

Panama's Changing Profile Heralds Dramatic Changes in World Distribution
Air schedules prove vital to criss-crossing world commerce and booming Free Zone; Pan Am leads in international cargo traffic, plays key role in hemispheric trade
IT’S NOT the Canal and it won’t eclipse the Canal. But Tocumen Airport in Panama is the stage upon which a dramatic new pattern of distribution is unfolding.
Panama is an Indian name meaning “abundance of fish.” And they do abound in the 1,244 miles of the Republic’s coastline. But Panama today is not synonymous with fish but with the Canal, the greatest man-made world trade shortcut between this planet’s biggest oceans.
Fast-paced changes in the Jet Age can never hope totally to eclipse the Canal. But they are already altering the profile Panama turns to the world as a focal point in global distribution.
Perpetual Crossroads. As early as 1826 liberator Simon Bolivar was dubbing Panama “The Hub of the World.” And even before that, gold and other plunder, transshipped in Panama to galleons bound for Spain, foretold its future stature as a focal point in international trade. In time, Panama’s strategic position athwart the main arteries of commerce, coupled with the fast link between the Atlantic and Pacific afforded by the Canal, did make it a hub and crossroads of the universe.
And now Tocumen Airport, 16 miles from the capital, Panama City, is transforming Panama into a major air crossroads in the worldwide distribution of cargo.
Last year 6,174 tons of air cargo moved in and out of Tocumen. This represented an increase over 1959 of
MASSIVE TERMINAL has plenty of room to handle cargo flying out of Panama in far flung radial pattern.
10%, a 15% gain over 1958, the year Panama welcomed its first jets. Twelve airlines feed this cargo in and out of Tocumen, and Pan Am accounts for better than 50% of this cargo traffic.
Limitless Horizons. Pouring through Pan Am’s 36,600-square-foot facility is cargo from six continents moving in regular patterns. It may be surgical instruments bound for Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and other points in southeast Asia; pharmaceuticals on the way to Europe and Africa through New
THESE CASE goods came from St. Louis via Miami. Range of cargo hemispheric hub is limitless.
York, to Asia through West Coast cities, or even from England through New York to Central America; cameras and camera equipment from the U.S. East Coast headed for Latin American and Caribbean cities; textiles from Japan bound for Rio de Janeiro; watches from Switzerland on their way to Colombia and Ecuador.
Baby chicks, electrical equipment, surface vehicles and parts, clothing, periodicals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals —these are only some of the items which leave regularly from U.S. jump-off points such as Miami and Los Angeles, bound for inter-American destinations. Housegold goods of all description constantly move in and out of Panama by special Clipper Van Paks.
As a top destination for U.S.-originated cargo, Panama has Clipper flights arriving and leaving in a staccato pattern.
Thrice weekly jets connect Tocumen with each of the following U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, and Miami. Daily piston flights through Central American points provide links to the major jet transfer point at Guatemala. Daily jets connect Panama with
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♦Trademark, Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.