Tocumen International Airport will maintain a mandatory double security check for passengers arriving from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti, according to the announcement by the Civil Aviation Authority of Panama, reporting that the country has been removed from the "significant concern" list of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The measure remains in place because the four countries have not been validated under the One Security System (OSS), which Panama implemented to mutually recognize the security controls of other countries and avoid duplicate inspections of transit passengers, reported La Prensa Panamá.
Under this scheme, travelers coming from Cuba must go through a quick inspection room upon disembarking from the plane, a process that takes between three and four minutes per person, before proceeding to their final destination.
The director of the Civil Aeronautical Authority, Rafael Bárcenas Chiari, explained that without this model, Panama would have had to install additional control points at multiple boarding gates. "That would have increased operational costs and reduced the efficiency of the hub," he noted.
Cuban airports have documented deficiencies that hinder their validation: frequent blackouts, infrastructure malfunctions, shortages of spare parts for security equipment such as scanners, and unauthorized access gaps.
For example, in September 2025, a power outage left hundreds of passengers in the dark in the boarding area of José Martí Airport, and the Terminal 3 of that facility temporarily closed due to a broken pipe, affecting operations of several airlines.
The OSS system, recommended by ICAO in Annex 17 of the Chicago Convention, involves Panama auditing and validating the security controls of other countries every 24 months before recognizing their equivalence with its own. Currently, the country has validated 25 nations plus the European bloc, representing about 95% compliance with the system.
The removal from the ICAO list concludes an issue that had persisted for over a decade and had been formally communicated to dozens of countries with flights to Panama. The announcement was described as a milestone for Panamanian aviation.
For Cubans, the situation in Tocumen is particularly complex. Since March 2022, Panama has required a mandatory transit visa for Cuban citizens making a stopover at that airport, a measure extended until July 31, 2026 through Executive Decree No. 22 signed by President José Raúl Mulino.
The combination of this requirement with the dual security screening makes Panama one of the most restricted transit destinations for Cuban passengers in the region.
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