The work is one consignment, one cabin, one signature. You collect it in or near Colón, you keep it with you, you present the prepared paperwork at customs and you hand it over in person. What makes Colón useful is that Tocumen is only 84 km away, so the collection and the departure can happen in the same afternoon.
Open · Panama desk · Colón
On Board Courier, Colón
Carry sealed, urgent consignments out of Colón. PTY sits 84 km south east of the city and flies to 89 airports without a change of aircraft.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inColón, Colón
Nearest gatePTY · Tocumen
Drive to the aircraft84 km · 1 hour 17 minutes
Nonstop from PTY89 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
From the offer to the handover, a trip out of PTY tends to run under thirty hours. 1 hour 17 minutes to Tocumen, the sector itself, customs at the far end, and a signature. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of JFK, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real. Everything outside the cabin, the transfers, the hotel where the routing needs one, is booked and paid by the desk.
Getting to the aircraft from Colón
A courier in Colón is only as fast as the road in front of them. Colón to PTY is 84 km, 1 hour 17 minutes, and the airports below are ordered by that drive rather than by size.
1 hour 17 minutes on the road is a real commitment and the desk treats it as one. The offer will say when you need to leave Colón, and an overnight near PTY is booked and paid for when the timings do not work otherwise. There is no alternative airport for Colón. When PTY has no suitable departure the assignment moves to another city rather than waiting, and the desk says so rather than pretending.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PTY | Tocumen | 84 km | 1 hour 17 minutes | 89 |
Colón is a city of 78,000 people in Colón, and the clock there runs 9 hours behind the Emirates all year. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Colón may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What PTY reaches without a change
PTY publishes 89 nonstop routes. For a courier in Colón that is the difference between waiting for tomorrow and boarding tonight, so the busiest of them are set out below with their operators.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUJ | Punta Cana | Punta Cana | about 13 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| SJO | San José | San José Juan Santamaria | about 12 departures a day | 2 operators: Copa Airlines, Avianca |
| BOG | Bogotá | Bogotá El Dorado | about 11 departures a day | 2 operators: Copa Airlines, Avianca |
| MIA | Miami | Miami | about 10 departures a day | 2 operators: Copa Airlines, American Airlines |
| MDE | Rionegro | Rionegro Jose Maria Córdova | about 9 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| LIM | Lima | Lima Jorge Chávez | about 8 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| MEX | Mexico City | Mexico City Licenciado Benito Juarez | about 8 departures a day | 2 operators: Copa Airlines, Aeromexico |
| EZE | Buenos Aires | Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| MCO | Orlando | Orlando | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| UIO | Quito | Quito Mariscal Sucre | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
Counting every airport a courier in Colón can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 89 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
What moves out of Colón
There is no published industrial map for the PTY area on this site, and a page that made one up would be worthless. The traffic out of Colón is the normal kind: documents that have to be witnessed, parts that stopped something, and samples with a clock on them.
Why a courier in Colón is useful to the desk
There is a second reason Colón matters, and it is the return leg. A courier who lives here can take a consignment inbound to Colón and be home the same evening, which is cheaper and faster than flying somebody out from the Gulf and back.
A change of aircraft stands between Colón and the Gulf, which changes the timings rather than the work. From Colón the best single change is New York (JFK), and JFK to DXB is flown by Emirates, about 3 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 19h 44m gate to gate, so an assignment between Colón and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Panama list
Show the 2 closest, and how far each is from Colón
All 3 Panama cities are listed on the Panama courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of PTY, between Panama and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 1 hour 17 minutes drive to PTY. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach PTY, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Colón list
01How far is Colón from PTY?
The route from Colón to PTY runs 84 km and takes about 1 hour 17 minutes with clear roads. Traffic between Colón and PTY is allowed for on top, and the desk pays for the parking or the transfer either way.
02What can I reach from Colón without a change of aircraft?
PTY serves 89 airports nonstop across 35 countries with 11 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Colón can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 89 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Colón to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Colón the best single change is New York (JFK), and JFK to DXB is flown by Emirates, about 3 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 19h 44m gate to gate, so an assignment between Colón and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No residence visa, no Emirates address and no relocation. A courier on this list lives in Colón and flies out of PTY, which is exactly what the desk needs.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
There is no application fee, no placement fee and no deposit, in Colón or anywhere else. The AED 199 Academy is the single payment, and it is returned in full with your first assignment fee.
06How is my fee agreed?
The desk sends the routing, the timing and the fee for that specific assignment in writing. You accept or decline it. Nothing is deducted or charged without your written agreement.
Apply to fly out of PTY
One application covers Colón and every other desk we run. Tell us where you are and how fast you can reach Tocumen.
Apply for this positionSee all openingsThe PTY atlas entry · The Panama courier desk · Panama country guide · All courier openings · Apply to the courier network