--- title: "Panama City to San José (PTY → SJO): distance and flight time · Orbit" description: "Panama City to San José is 539 km (335 mi) great circle, an estimated 1h 10m in the air. The route, what it flies over, and why the short way is not the straight line on a map." url: https://orbitflights.app/routes/pty-to-sjo --- PTY → SJO # Panama City to San José: distance, flight time and the route it really takes Tocumen to Juan Santamaría is 539 km of great circle — 335 mi — and an estimated 1h 10m in the air. Both ends are in North America. **Great circle** 539 km 335 mi **Estimated in the air** 1h 10m block time **Furthest from equator** 10.0°N at 100% along **One lap of Earth** 1.3% of 40,075 km Of the [292 routes catalogued here](https://orbitflights.app/routes), this is the 280th longest. The Panama City to San José route drawn as a great circle arc on a globe ## What the aircraft actually flies over From Panama City the path crosses Panama, then 283 km of open water, then Costa Rica. The furthest the great circle gets from the equator is 10.0°N, 100% of the way along. Holding a single compass bearing the whole way would cover almost exactly the same ground, so on this route the flat map and the globe agree. The heading barely moves: west out of Panama City, west into San José. Over this distance the curve has too little room to bend the compass. One economy seat on it is about 80 kg of CO₂e each way, counting non-CO₂ warming. [PTY–SJO carbon footprint →](https://orbitflights.app/tools/flight-carbon-calculator?from=PTY&to=SJO) [Map this route →](https://orbitflights.app/tools/flight-route-map?r=PTY-SJO) From PTY ## Tocumen Panama City, Panama · North America 9.1°N, 79.4°W [PTY airport →](https://orbitflights.app/airports/pty) To SJO ## Juan Santamaría San José, Costa Rica · North America 10.0°N, 84.2°W [SJO airport →](https://orbitflights.app/airports/sjo) ## Panama City to San José, asked and answered **How far is Panama City to San José?** Panama City to San José (PTY to SJO) is 539 km, or 335 mi, measured as great circle distance between the two airports. **How long is the flight from Panama City to San José?** About 1h 10m in the air. That is an estimate from the distance at a typical airliner block speed, plus half an hour for taxi, climb and descent; published schedules vary with winds and routing. **What route does a Panama City to San José flight take?** The great circle passes over Panama, then 283 km of open water, then Costa Rica. It reaches 10.0°N at its furthest from the equator. ## Where these numbers come from Distances are computed from the two airports’ own coordinates, not looked up from published routes. Times are estimates, not schedules. [Why the shortest path is a curve →](https://orbitflights.app/blog/great-circle-routes-explained) ## Flown this one? Orbit logs it in two taps and draws the arc on your own globe, along with every other flight you can remember. Free for your first 15. [Download now](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qwertybit.orbit) ## Nearby routes [MIA → PTY Miami to Panama City 1,862 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/mia-to-pty) [LAX → SFO Los Angeles to San Francisco 543 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lax-to-sfo) [ATH → IST Athens to Istanbul 553 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ath-to-ist) [YYZ → YUL Toronto to Montréal 507 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/yyz-to-yul) [BKK → PNH Bangkok to Phnom Penh 504 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/bkk-to-pnh) [LIM → CUZ Lima to Cusco 586 km](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lim-to-cuz) ## Further reading [How many miles do you have to fly around the world?](https://orbitflights.app/blog/how-many-miles-to-fly-around-the-world) [What is on the exact opposite side of the world?](https://orbitflights.app/blog/opposite-side-of-the-world) [What's actually worth counting in a flight log](https://orbitflights.app/blog/what-is-worth-counting-in-a-flight-log) --- Markdown copy of https://orbitflights.app/routes/pty-to-sjo for language models and agents. Site index: https://orbitflights.app/llms.txt