El Palomar International Airport and a first time visit.
El Palomar International Airport in Buenos Aires, is a Military Airport that now caters for both domestic and international flights. They do not service all airlines and at this stage, mainly Flybondi.
We booked on Flybondi from Cordoba to Buenos Aires recently and it was our first experience with both Flybondi and Palomar International Airport.
Arriving at El Palomar International Airport and what to expect.
We arrived more or less at 19:00 when the sun was about to set. Looking out through the window of the airplane, I could see old military planes parked on the hanger. I am not sure if they are still operating. El Palomar Airport was mainly used as a military delivery airport.
There are no buses to transport passengers to the arrivals area. You disembark the airplane and walk to the carousel. The airport is divided into domestic and international areas and Immigration employees could be seen in the international area.
The wait for our luggage was over before we knew it. In fact, while we were disembarking, the airport staff came around to collect the luggage. We waited for no more than 10 minutes to collect our luggage. We were impressed!
El Palomar Airport services.
Palomar Airport is tiny and clean. There are not a lot of seats available and when the airport is busy – many people are left standing.
Flybondi has a couple of check-in counters and restrooms available. There is a food truck outside that offers fast food at reasonable prices. You can pay with both credit and debit cards. The airport has free Wi-Fi.
Tip: If you arrive early at the airport and have done your check-in, move through to the boarding area. This section offers more seating and a Brioche Doree coffee shop is available with delicious coffee.
Just outside the airport entrance is a small office for Manuel Tienda Leon. They offer transfer services into Buenos Aires city. We booked our transport directly on Flybondi and paid 20 pesos per person less.
It made it a lot easier as they had our names on the list when we arrived. Please note, this service is not available when transferring to El Palomar Airport.
How to get to El Palomar Airport from Buenos Aires Retiro?
As I have mentioned before, Manuel Tienda Leon at this stage, does not offer a transport service to El Palomar Airport. We arrived at Retiro bus terminal and decided to take the train to El Palomar Airport. Why? When we left the airport we saw a train running directly in front of the airport. This is in fact the San Martin line.
In principle this should be easy but for us, it was not. We asked around at the Retiro train teminal how to get to El Palomar Aiport. People were rumbling down instructions and sold us tickets. We had no idea where to go to. We asked at the entrance and the man gave us directions. It was not straight forward because the line, San Martin, which takes you directly to El Palomar, was not working as normal.
We had to take the Belgrano Norte line, take a free bus and reconnect with the San Martin line.
Tip: I do suggest to allow for extra time. We had a stressful time as we thought that we might miss our flight with all the changes. There are a lot of changes and road works currently in Buenos Aires city. There are no indications at the Retiro train terminal on how to get to El Palomar Airport. The first sign that we saw was inside the San Martin line.
When 3 or more people are travelling, it is not a bad idea to use Uber. I checked the prices and it was more or less 650 pesos (Friday 17 March 2019) in a vehicle for 4 people.
I do not recommend to take the bus. If however you do want to torture yourself, by all means take 53 bus line. You can catch the bus from Plaza Constitución (and other stops), and hop off close to the train station mentioned earlier.
A final word about El Palomar Airport.
El Palomar Airport is very new and they are still trying to find their feet. I honestly can not complain about the service or the layout of the airport. It has everything that you need. The most difficult part for me was the transport and getting to El Palomar Airport. We did not plan in advance and the construction and changes in the city made it difficult and time consuming.
Blogs are not updated regularly and often do not reflect the current status of the transport systems. If you do not speak Spanish, this could be difficult. We had very kind people who helped us. All we said was that we were from Cordoba and they gave us a sympathetic look. The big city can be daunting at times.
