Flying to El Salvador

General Information

While the country has around twenty airfields, it only has one true airport: the Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador. This airport, the hub of Avianca El Salvador, welcomes over 3 million passengers per year (3,113,000 in 2012), making Romero the third-largest hub in Central America. However, aside from Madrid, the fifty or so cities served by direct flights are all on the American continent.

Types of Flights

Local Airlines

El Salvador has one major airline: Avianca El Salvador. This is the subsidiary of the Colombian Avianca, resulting from the 2013 absorption of the former airline TACA. A member of Star Alliance (Lufthansa, United, etc.), it serves around two dozen cities in the Americas from its base under its own brand, among the hundred or so destinations offered by the Avianca group as a whole.

Besides Avianca El Salvador, there is another Salvadoran carrier launched at the end of 2014: Veca Airlines, which only flies to Guatemala City and San José from San Salvador.

Charters, Scheduled, and Low-Cost Flights

Apart from a few very occasional charters from North America, El Salvador remains a destination for scheduled airlines.

Promotions and Special Offers

Promotions for this destination are not unique to it but correspond to specific offers from airlines on their networks, including El Salvador.

From France and Europe

Only Madrid, thanks to Iberia, offers direct (though not non-stop) connections to El Salvador. From Paris or elsewhere, flights will require a stopover via Madrid or, more commonly, the United States (with the drawback of needing an ESTA for the U.S.). As a result, flights can be quite long to reach the destination—at best around 15 hours, and at worst well over a day with layovers. Round-trip fares from Paris to San Salvador range from 580 to 900 €.

Note that Guatemala City’s airport is not far from El Salvador and may present an alternative worth considering.