Flight Information
It can be difficult to find direct flights from places outside of Latin America to Ecuador. In the United States and Canada, there are very few direct flights to Ecuador. However, connecting flights to main hubs are easy to book. Direct flights to Quito and Guayaquil from the United States are operated by American Airlines, Lan Ecuador, and Aerogal from Miami. Other direct flights can be arranged from the United States, depending on where you are flying out.
If you’re traveling from the UK or Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand, you will not be able to find a direct flight to Ecuador. Instead, you will have to choose from the many indirect flights involving a European or American city layover. For travelers coming from South Africa, your best route is by flying to a South American hub such as Buenos Aires, Santiago, or Lima, and then transferring to a direct flight to Quito from there.
Quito has an international airport, Mariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO), that opened in early 2013. The airport is located 15 miles northeast of the city center, about a half-hour away. There are a check-in area and gate lounge designated exclusively for travelers bound for the Galapagos Islands. There are direct routes from Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires direct to Quito. Note that there is a departure tax, but the tax is included in the price of your ticket.
The second international airport in Ecuador is located in Guayaquil, the José JoaquÃn de Olmedo International Airport. There are international flights to here from New York, Miami, Houston, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Madrid, Amsterdam, Lima, Bogota, Panama City, and more.
The Galapagos Islands have two airports, on Baltra and San Cristobal. The air carrier Aerogal flies from Quito to the Galapagos, while LAN, Aerogal, and TAME have non-stop flights from Guayaquil. There are no direct international flights to the Galapagos.
