Santiago Airport (SCL): terminals, flights

Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benítez (IATA: SCL, ICAO: SCEL) is a network point for Santiago, Chile. Our catalogue shows 0 departing routes and 2 arriving, with the airlines, frequencies and lowest peso (MXN) fares listed below.

Airport facts

SCL carries 2 routes and 3 airlines in our catalogue, totalling 12 weekly departures. Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benítez (ICAO SCEL) serves Santiago, Chile, in the America/Santiago zone (UTC−4 in July). Its coordinates (-33.393, -70.7858) are the basis of every distance on this site.

• IATA: SCL
• ICAO: SCEL
• City: Santiago
• Country: Chile
• Time zone: America/Santiago
• Coordinates: -33.393, -70.7858
• Airlines at the airport: 3

Time difference against Mexico City. In July, Santiago runs 2 h ahead of the Mexican capital (UTC−4 versus UTC−6). In January the airport operates on UTC−3, so the gap is not constant across the year: daylight saving shifts it. This is the calculation that decides whether a pre-booked ground connection still works.

Base of LATAM Airlines. An airline basing here means aircraft and crews overnighting at the airport: more of its own services to rebook a disrupted passenger onto, and more early departures. The flip side is that at an airport dominated by one carrier the competitive pressure on fares is weaker than where several compete.

What each code is for. The IATA code (SCL) is what the bag tag and the ticket use; the ICAO code (SCEL) is what flight plans, NOTAMs and flight trackers use. To follow the inbound aircraft that will become your flight, ICAO is the one that returns reliable results. And if SCL is not printed on your bag tag, the bag was not checked through to here — worth catching at the counter.

Airlines at SCL

3 catalogued airlines operate routes to or from SCL: 2 full-service and 1 low-cost, with checked allowance from 0 to 25 kg. Alliances present: SkyTeam. They cover 2 catalogued routes and 12 weekly departures. The table below lists each operator with its type, alliance and checked allowance.

Carriers in our catalogue operating routes to or from this airport, with type, alliance and economy baggage allowance:

25 kg separate the most generous operator from the leanest at SCL. That gap is what reorders prices once the bag is in: a cheaper base fare on a carrier with no included baggage can land above a full-service one the moment you check a single piece. Compare the total, not the headline figure.

Alliances present at SCL: SkyTeam. It matters for two concrete things: where miles credit, and what happens when something breaks. Within one alliance, rebooking onto another member is usually provided for; between carriers with no agreement it does not exist and depends on goodwill at the desk. If you buy two legs on operators from different alliances, treat them as two separate trips.

Routes to Santiago (SCL)

Our catalogue lists 2 routes into SCL, totalling 12 weekly departures and spanning 6,597 to 6,917 km. The busiest is MEX-SCL at ~10 flights a week; 0 of them carry a cached fare, spread across 1 audience profiles. Every row in this section comes from that same corridor catalogue, not from a live search.

What traffic SCL moves. By audience profile, the routes catalogued here split as: Latin American regional corridor (2). That mix explains the airport’s seasonality: family corridors spike in December and Holy Week, leisure ones follow the holiday calendar, and regional ones stay flatter across the year.

Why some rows have no fare. Of the 2 routes listed, 0 returned a price on the collector’s last pass and the rest show a dash. A dash means the automated query got no result for that pair — not that the route is suspended or expensive. For those pairs the reference price comes from the live search, which queries current inventory.

Connection tips

SCL concentrates 12 catalogued weekly departures across 3 airlines, in the America/Santiago zone. That density is what decides how much slack to leave on a connection: the more of its own services the airline runs here, the more same-day rebooking options exist.

Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benítez runs on the America/Santiago time zone; factor the offset from your origin city when planning connections and transfers. The busiest route at SCL is MEX-SCL (~10 flights a week). Book 4–8 weeks ahead for the busiest routes to/from Santiago; fares climb in December, Holy Week and summer. Each route guide above shows month-by-month seasonality and the lowest peso fare. That window is a general Mexican-market rule of thumb, not a measurement of this route: our series records observed prices, not the lead time at which each ticket was bought.

The cheap connection that loses the checked bag. Two separate tickets are not one itinerary: there is no interline agreement, the bag is not checked through to the final destination, and if the first flight lands late the second airline owes you nothing — it sold a different flight. The apparent saving evaporates the moment you buy a same-day replacement. On a single ticket, rebooking and the bag transfer are the carrier’s problem, not yours.

FAQ

The 8 questions on this record are answered from catalogue figures for SCL: routes and weekly frequencies, minimum fares observed by the collector, checked-baggage allowances and the rights regime that applies on each leg. No answer adds data that is not in those sources.

What are the IATA and ICAO codes for Santiago airport? The IATA code is SCL and the ICAO code is SCEL. Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benítez serves Santiago, Chile.

Which airlines operate at SCL? Airlines on our catalogued routes at SCL: Aeromexico, LATAM Airlines, Volaris.

How many routes are there from Santiago (SCL)? Our catalogue lists 0 departing routes and 2 arriving at SCL — see the tables above.

What time zone is SCL in? SCL operates in the America/Santiago time zone.

How many weekly departures does SCL have in this catalogue? Across the catalogued routes touching SCL we count 12 weekly departures over 3 airlines and 2 routes. That is the coverage relevant to Mexican travellers, not the airport’s full directory.

What is the time difference between Santiago and Mexico City? In July, Santiago runs 2 h ahead of Mexico City (UTC−4 versus UTC−6). The gap shifts with daylight saving, so recompute it for your exact date before booking transfers.

What is the longest catalogued route at SCL? Catalogued routes at SCL span 6,597 to 6,917 km great-circle, computed from each airport’s coordinates. That distance drives aircraft type and the applicable compensation band on European sectors.

Which airlines are based at SCL? LATAM Airlines run SCL as a base. An airline based here keeps aircraft and crews overnight, so it has more of its own services to rebook a disrupted passenger onto the same day.

Related

• Chile airports

Published by FlightsMX Editorial Team. Last verified: May 2026.