Airline Leader Interview - Copa

Pedro Heilbron is CEO of Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) and Copa Airlines, which offers service to 79 destinations in 32 countries in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean from its Hub of the Americas at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Panama. Heilbron joined Copa Airlines in 1988. Under his leadership Copa established the Hub of the Americas in Panama, the most successful hub in Latin America, negotiated a successful alliance with Continental Airlines, now United, took the airline public in 2005 and launched Colombian Ultra Low Cost airline Wingo in 2016. One of the leading airlines in Latin America, Copa has received several prestigious international awards, including most recently the “Most punctual airline in the world” award (OAG, 2018) and the “Most punctual airline in Latin America” (CIRIUM, 2021). Heilbron currently is a member of the Chair Committee and Board of Governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), member of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and member of the Executive Committee of Star Alliance. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and earned an M.B.A. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.