Bogota Airport

I have been traveling back and forth from BOG for the last 7 years and recently landed in the new international terminal after being away for 1.5 years. Although I agree the new international terminal has some minuses mainly in its long-term capacity and some details here and there in terms of decoration and painting the airport has improved greatly! It is much much more user friendly the lighting is great and is full with big windows and golden tiles. It has great shops and restaurants and the duty free is world-class at this point nothing to compare to the few shops present at the old terminal. Also and at least as of March the immigration process took less than 5 minutes all together not only for me but for everyone else who landed on my flight. The baggage claim area is large and bright and the system for baggage delivery is similar to big world airports such as JFK or LHR so nothing to be envious about. I believe with time BOG will become a great connections centre for Latin America and I strongly recommend it for future travels.

The airport was clean even though construction was in progress. The staff at immigration were disrespectful chatting with friends eating behind the counter while people were waiting to be helped and playing on their cell phones. There were 5 ladies behind the counter and 4 of them left at once leaving one girl to fend the desk and the line up of people there. She continually left us to help other people and made us wait 1hr before she completed the papers we needed to catch our flight. We were boarded on our plane and ready to go only to be delayed 5 hours sitting on the plane while engine maintenance was performed. Everyone seemed to be running on "Colombian time" chatting away and not working. I was only too excited to get away from there.

Recently completed an international round trip through El Dorado and another through its primarily domestic sibling (Terminal 1). The departures and at least part of the arrivals area for El Dorado appear to be in their new facility. The immigration formalities when quickly perhaps because it was a light arrival without a lot of other concurrent flights. Even in the Green Lane there is an obviously very perfunctory X-ray of luggage which mostly seemed to be a time consuming annoyance. The 'authorized' taxi queue is supposed to provide an estimated fare but does not do so. International departures area is bright and without the din of TV monitors found in the domestic airport. Only two cafe type restaurants in the ticketing concourse (almost hidden at the far end away from the ticketing area) along with a more visible snack bar. The actual departure area beyond security has many shops and a phantom food court which I was unable to find although there was a bar and cafe in the main concourse for gates. Two big inconveniences: Departing flyers need to visit a stall to see if they have to pay departure tax (it may be included in the ticket price) - there is nothing to draw attention to this stall and I found out about the requirement only after queuing up for departure. Fortunately the airline (United) let me go and comeback without re-queuing. Foreigners are supposed to be able to receive a VAT rebate if purchases exceed a certain threshold however there is only one place to do this in the domestic terminal. Security in the new terminal is erratic. Domestic terminal oddly has many more food options in the pre-check-in area than the bigger international terminal but nothing in the gate areas. Queuing for check-in is long and inefficient. The security protocol is very simple and there is no need to remove shoes watches etc. The 'gate' for my flight was in a bullpen in an airless poorly non air-conditioned part of the airport on the second floor with only vending machines for refreshments. Announcements translated into English only for international flights and even locals had trouble following the ones in Spanish. Monitors not updated and I determined that my flight was boarding based on Avianca's website. I had to trek to the other side of the airport to board no one was in any great hurry so I assumed this was a typical protocol. On return the baggage claim immediately spills into the taxi area. A nice new airport with limited facilities and ineptitude with tax issues along with an older domestic terminal that's great until you have to check-in.

Great airport. The new building has a spacious bright and transparent architecture. Good selection of shops and facilities. Waiting rooms are comfortable and quiet. The immigration process has improved a lot as they've increased the number of counters. It was a very pleasant experience. The only bad point was the customs process which was a bit too long. They don't seem to be prepared to deal with an increasing number of tourists.

Landed and departed recently from the new International terminal at Bogota. Sadly Colombia missed a real opportunity here. To show the world what an upcoming destination it is. The design is boring and full of grey paint. It could be anywhere in the world. Nothing to show the vibrant colours and life that is Colombia.

Two words: avoid it by all means. Take any other option until the new terminal building is operational. Until then you will only find chaos specially if you are taking a national connecting flight. When you arrive from an international destination you will face very long lines in customs even if your luggage has been transferred to the final destination. Then you will have to wait for a bus which will only leave for the national terminal when it is completely packed. It will make one or two stops before you get to the national terminal after riding through planes cranes and trucks. Once at the national terminal there is no place to sit every meter is crowded then you walk and walk until you get to the plane to the stairs actually because they don't have direct access through boarding bridges. Nobody understands why such a large capital city has not taken provisions much earlier and is only now doing what should have been done 20 years ago.

We had to take our luggage on an overcrowded bus from the domestic to international terminal. No one was controlling the number of people on the bus and people just kept getting on until the doors would not close. There was a complicated set of security and immigration checks and we were just tourists leaving the country. Pieces of paper picked up and stamped passport stamped multiple times for no apparent reason. We were jammed into a departure lounge with no washrooms or facilities of any kind. Long queues for everything and top dollar prices for everything.

We visited in September 2011. I had read various comments about the queues and so on and was prepared for the worst. To our surprise the immigration queue went so fast that we didn't stand still at all (plane arrived 19.30). In fact there were more that 20 counters with immigration employees making the process amazingly fast. The immigration officer we met was very friendly. As for baggage collection I have no opinion since we had only carry-on baggage. The customs queue was a little bit slower but not slow enough. And the customs officer didn't lose time making useless questions. All in all within 5-10 minutes (literally) we has landed and were out of the airport. As for cleanliness everything looked good. The ceiling seemed a little bit old but that's all. It seems that the airport was recently painted and/or renewed.

You know you have arrived in South America upon arrival at Bogota. Flew AA from Miami. The first thing is the aged appearance of the airport with low ceilings and a dank feel. Chaotic arrivals area that can make it hard to find who you are looking for. Departures area is extremely busy at time of AA morning flight to Miami. Remember to go to the tax office line prior to the airline queue - this process seems archaic. The same staff who check you in will perform the final security check and will then be your flight attendants so the Bogota shift is certainly labour intensive! Duty free is cheap but staffed by extremely surly employees. Purchase if you dare. Certainly very dated and can only look forward to when the adjacent new terminal construction is completed.

You get processed fairly quickly but that's about the only thing positive I can say about our experience there. An embarrassingly small selection of low-quality overpriced (by Colombian standards) food and duty free stores staffed by the MOST arrogant rude lazy and generally useless people we have met in Colombia which was quite a shock after all the simply wonderful and friendly people we have met throughout our travels there. Left a rather sour taste in our mouths really. Can't recommend anything other than just checking in waiting and getting out of there ASAP. Overall the worst airport we've ever had the misfortune of using.