content: Probably just a prestige thing for the airline. I can't imagine it saves anyone any time unless they live in one of those cities and only want to visit the other. The Middle East is good for flying between Europe/Africa and Asia but a European or African would be much better off flying to Miami and connecting to Central/South America or flying directly to South America. Otherwise maybe they think there's enough common offshore business in both UAE and Panama? Seems unlikely to me.