Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport Sees 39 Million Passengers By Year-End

ISTANBUL—El Dorado International Airport in Colombia's capital Bogota expects to hit the milestone of around 39 million passengers by the end of the year as its post-COVID recovery continues, Stephane Marcoux, the airport’s aviation marketing director, told a session at Routes World in Istanbul.

“The worst, hopefully, is behind us,” Marcoux said, adding, “The words that everybody had in their mouths were 'patience' and 'resilience.'”

The airport had 35.1 million passengers by the end of 2019, and was looking at double-digit growth, before the COVID pandemic struck and brought with it lockdowns that destroyed travel demand and closed many borders. 

In 2020, passenger numbers at the airport fell dramatically to 10.8 million. “And thank God we had a very good domestic market,” Marcoux said. “International was impossible. When you talk about resilience, it was about: How can we recover from that?”

In 2021, numbers were on the rise again—to almost 23 million—and last year, the airport exceeded its 2019 figure, hitting 35.6 million.

For 2023, the airport is expecting growth to around 39 million passengers by the end of the year, Marcoux said. “It’s about patience … planning well, forecasting well and having good communication and a good relationship with partners—the airlines. I sit down with them [to ask] how can we help each other, how can we have a win-win situation and get new ideas.”