tl;dr – The Colombian capital’s airport surges ahead of other popular LATAM ports.
Recently, I came across a stat that I found a bit surprising. According to several outlets, Latinometrics and OAG, namely, Bogotá’s Aeropuerto Internacional El Dorado is now Latin America’s busiest, riding a post-pandemic travel boom to surge past behemoths Mexico City (MEX) and São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport (GRU).
According to Latinometrics, in 2024, “the Colombian hub processed 45.4 million travelers, edging past Mexico City (44.9 M) and São Paulo-Guarulhos (43.1 M) to become the region’s busiest airport for the first time.”
Mexico City and São Paulo have for several years jockeyed back and forth over the top LATAM spot, and Bogotá remained a growing but distant third. While viewing the graphic above, you might think that a leap from 3rd to 1st isn’t so surprising. For me, it was the population of each respective metro area that led me to believe that such a jump was unlikely. Mexico City (21,804,515) and São Paulo (23,443,587) have nearly double the greater-metropolitan-area populations than that of Bogotá (12,772,828). If you take just the cities proper, it’s a bit closer – 11,877,700m (São Paulo), 9,209,944 (Mexico City), and 7,876,000 (Bogotá).
At the end of the day, the population is just not what tells the story here. Instead, we need to look at both tourism, airline networks, and routing.
Latinometrics again helps paint the picture:
“Tourism to Colombia has recovered remarkably, with a 58% increase since pre-pandemic (2019) numbers. Separately, we can’t ignore that geography helps: Bogotá sits midway between the Americas, so Avianca and LATAM Airlines have built spider-web networks that pull in connections to the US and Europe. Similar explanations can also account for the top-ten positions of both Lima and Panama City, which have become key points of transfer for inter-American flight paths. Panama [Copa] and Lima [LATAM] in part, replaced Mexico City’s grand plans to connect the region after President López Obrador infamously canceled a new airport project during his first month in office back in 2018.”
Over the last few years, when searching for flights to South America, the Caribbean, or Europe, I’ve noticed a lot more fares that include a stop in Bogotá.
My most recent trip to the city was in 2022, where I enjoyed a great stay at the Grand Hyatt Bogotá (review forthcoming), a phenomenal meal at mother-daughter restaurant Leo, and fun cultural excursions such as a graffiti tour and visits to Museo Botero.
Bogotá is well worth the stop!
