The German airline has furthered its network expansion with a new destination in South America.

From November 16, 2015, the airline will operate year-round flights between Frankfurt and Panama City five times weekly, subject to government approval.

The route will be operated with the airlines Airbus A340-300 aircraft, departing from Lufthansa’s Frankfurt hub at 10:15am, arriving into Panama at 16:40pm local time, with a flight time of 12 hours and 25 minutes. The return flight will depart from Panama City at 18:45pm, arriving into Frankfurt at 11:35am the following day.

Lufthansa will operate the route everyday apart from Tuesdays and Sundays, offering a total of 298 seats configured to 18 Business Class seats, 19 in Premium Economy, and 261 Economy seats.

The cabins will feature the latest designs in all classes, including the new Premium Economy design with increased legroom and a larger seat pitch. All passengers will benefit from individual in-flight entertainment systems, as well as FlyNet, the wireless broadband internet.

Lufthansa is also expanding its partnership with the Panamanian airline Copa, which will allow Lufthansa passengers to be able to easily reach a further 50 destinations in Central and South America and the Caribbean with the partner airline. Lufthansa service times will be coordinated with Copa’s connecting flights in order to allow passengers to connect easily at Tocumen International Airport in Panama – Copa’s main hub.

"The market has grown a lot, as has the economy. Copa Airlines, which is our allied company, also offers a network to Central America and the Caribbean that is very good for us, in order to make connections from Panama towards Europe," said Dirk van Nieuwkerk, general manager for Mexico and Central America.

The German airline currently has a direct connection from Mexico City to Frankfurt, and from April will begin a service between Mexico City and Munich, which will operate five-times weekly.

Panama has also managed to increase its connections from Europe with new routes from Iberia (Spain), Air France, and KLM (Netherlands).

Panama is located between Costa Rica and Colombia and has recorded increasingly strong economic growth in recent years. Besides the famous Panama Canal, it has an important banking sector, a favourable geographic location and good infrastructure, as well as multiple beaches, national parks and rainforests.