My husband and I made two separate trips to Argentina in 2018 and spent time in both Buenos Aires and Bariloche. Getting from the Pacific Northwest in the United States to an Argentina international airport is nowhere near a straight shot. In our hours and hours of travel time, I picked up some savvy tips and tricks on how to navigate Argentina airports and find the most affordable domestic airlines within the country.
Argentina Airports | Buenos Aires
EZE Airport | Argentina International Airport
The Argentina international airport is Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires. Several airlines worldwide fly into this airport, which means long lines for immigration and customs.
Savvy Tip: no matter where you’re coming from, jump into the line for South American citizens! It’s almost always shorter and the customs officials don’t care if you’re in the correctly labeled line. In fact, our first time through, one of the agents told us we could use the shorter line! I’ve since used his suggestion several times and it always gets me through
EZE airport is located about 45 minutes to 1 hour from the center of Buenos Aires and there is not much see around the airport. If you plan to fly into Buenos Aires and see the city (or transfer to the domestic airport AEP, more about that below), you will need reliable transportation to get there.
Buenos Aires Airport Transportation
I personally recommend Tienda Leon which offers a shuttle bus to downtown Buenos Aires and private cars (known as remis). To arrange transportation with Tienda Leon, look for their kiosk immediately after leaving customs (where they scan your bags) but before exiting out into the main part of the airport.
Remis/private cars to the center of Buenos Aires will cost 800-850 pesos and the shuttle bus will cost 320 pesos per person, and the bus has free Wifi so that’s a bonus! Return travel back to EZE can be done the same way, but be sure to arrive 2.5 to 3 hours prior to an international flight out of EZE as you have to go through customs/immigration to leave the country, and the queue for that line can be extremely long, especially if you are on an evening flight back to the U.S.
AEP Airport
If you are traveling on to a different city in Argentina (ie: Bariloche, Salta, Mendoza, etc.), then chances are you’ll fly into EZE and then transfer to the Buenos Aires domestic airport. The AEP airport is the located in the center of Buenos Aires and is much smaller in comparison to the Argentina international airport.
EZE to AEP Transfer
If your travel plans include AEP, you will need to get from EZE to AEP airport on your own, but you can use Tienda Leon to get you there using their shuttle bus or a private car/
If you are spending a few days in Buenos Aires before traveling on to a different city in Argentina (which I highly recommend – Buenos Aires is definitely worth exploring!), be sure to book a domestic flight to your next destination out of AEP and not EZE to save the hour-long trip (and transportation cost!) back to EZE. I made this mistake on our first trip to Argentina — we had a Buenos Aires layover and spent one night in the center of town and then went to Bariloche the next day. Unfortunately, I booked that flight out of EZE instead of AEP so we had to make an unnecessary long haul back to the EZE airport instead of just flying to Bariloche from AEP.
Argentina Airlines
The main airlines for domestic travel within Argentina are Aerolineas Argentinas and LatAm. Budget airlines in Argentina like Andes Airlines and Norwegian, offer affordable domestic options as well.
Since there are so many airline options for Argentina domestic travel, travelers are definitely able to find affordable flights! I’ve flown on
Utilize Third-Party Sites for Booking Flights on Argentina Airlines
If you are confident in your travel plans and do not anticipate needing to make changes, it might be worth booking a flight on a third-party site like FlightNetwork.com. As I mentioned in a previous post, Airfare Hacks for the Savvy Traveler, I booked a roundtrip Aerolineas Argentinas flight between Buenos Aires and Bariloche on FlightNetwork.com and it saved me almost $100 per person!
The downside with booking through this type of site is that in the event you need to make changes to your itinerary, it’s going to cost more to make the change through the third-party site compared to how much it will cost to make the change direct with the airline.
Budget Airlines Argentina | Andes Airline Review
I’ve flown low-budget airlines in Europe before (EasyJet, RyanAir, etc.) but I can be very picky about which low-fare airlines I will take because I want reliable service and to get safely to my final destination. I found a low-budget airline in Argentina that met these criteria, and honestly, it wasn’t my first choice, but I am going to tell you why it should have been.
For our second trip to Argentina, I booked a round-trip itinerary direct with LatAm between AEP and Bariloche. A few weeks before our trip, our LatAm flight from AEP was canceled and they rebooked us on a much later flight out of EZE, which meant spending almost 12 hours in the EZE airport. Desperate to get to Bariloche at a reasonable hour, as I had planned with the original LatAm fight I booked, I started looking at other airline options.
Aerolineas Argentina was expensive since it was only a few weeks before our trip, but the low-cost airline, Andes, was only $60 each way which included one checked bag and being able to pick our seat. I hadn’t heard of Andes before, so I read reviews online, and the ones in English were not very good. Complaints about extra fees to check bags, a requirement to check-in online or pay a hefty fee for airport
I started to translate the Spanish reviews (thank you Trip Advisor & Google for this functionality!) and found those to be less scathing. Then, after using the Google Chrome browser (which has a built-in translation feature) to visit AndesOnline.com, I realized that you can pay a couple more dollars to purchase a ticket that allows checked bags and seat selection (if that’s your thing), and the website is very clear that you have to check in online or face a fee at the airport. They let you check in 48 hours in advance, so you have plenty of opportunity to that and besides, who doesn’t check in online these days?
I decided that we couldn’t pass up a $60 flight, especially since it would get us into Bariloche at least six hours before our rescheduled LatAm flight, and I ended up being so glad that I booked the Andes flight! Seriously, everything was smooth, our flight was on time, and they even gave out these cute little snack packs on the flight, which is a rarity for short flights these days. The plane itself was old and as with a lot of budget airlines outside of the U.S., you have to take a bus to the plane sitting on the tarmac because they do not use a jetway (to save on costs), but these details didn’t bother me since we made it safely and on-time to our destination, plus we paid a fraction of the cost of our originally purchased LatAm flight.
Andes Airlines flies to numerous cities in Argentina, in addition to Bariloche, like Salta, Mendoza, etc., so I highly recommend that you visit their website when booking domestic flights within Argentina. Just be sure to use the Google Chrome browser so you can translate the page to English!
- Buenos Aires Travel Guide
- 3 Days in Buenos Aires: A Savvy Traveler’s Guide
- Best Free Things to do in Buenos Aires
- The Savvy Way to Plan a Trip to Bariloche
- Bariloche Beer: A Tourists Guide to Breweries & Happy Hours
- Top 8 Things to do in Bariloche
Cheers!
