The airport serves as the homebase for Copa Airlines and is a regional hub to and from the Caribbean, South, North and Central America and additionally features routes to some European cities as well as cargo flights to Qatar.

The old airport building, which currently is being used as a cargo terminal, was built on an area of 720 ha (1,800 acres) and was 126 ft (38 m) above sea level.

As time passed, and due to Panama's role as a country of transit, that terminal became too small to attend to the growing demand for air operations.

After nine years, the original name was reestablished after the fall of the dictatorship of Panama by the U.S. invasion of 1989, when the airport was seized by 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers.

23 of January 29, 2003, which set out a regulatory framework for the management of airports and landing strips in Panama.

New boarding gates were built to allow more flights to and from Panama, and to facilitate the growth of commercial and internal circulation areas.

This included the addition of 6 remote positions, hence allowing Tocumen Airport to have a total of 28 boarding gates.

The next step of the modernization project was the purchasing of new equipment to provide service and support to the common areas of the airport.

The new facilities included the platforms, taxiways and a new road which connect both the cargo terminal and the airport's administration building.

[citation needed] The South Terminal started a bidding process during the first half of 2012 and the contract was acquired by the Brazilian company Odebrecht.

It included the construction of a new terminal, hundreds of parking spots, Tocumen river diversion, and four new direct-access lanes to the airport.