Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport

Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International is Chile's principal airport and the dominant hub of LATAM Airlines — the largest carrier group in Latin America — ranked by BigAirports as one of the three busiest airports in South America alongside São Paulo-Guarulhos and Bogotá. Located 20 km northwest of central Santiago at 1,555 ft (474 m) elevation in the Pudahuel area, SCL handles roughly 25M passengers annually through an expanded terminal complex that combines the legacy domestic pier with a new international terminal opened in 2021. Two parallel runways — 17L/35R at 12,303 ft (3,750 m) and 17R/35L at 12,303 ft (3,750 m) — support the operation, both dimensioned for fully loaded wide-body departures over the Andes and on trans-Pacific sectors. The new Terminal 2 international building, designed by ADPI, added 175,000 square meters and 20 new contact gates, lifting system capacity past 38M passengers annually. LATAM operates extensive hub banks with daily wide-body service to Madrid, Frankfurt, Auckland (Oneworld's southernmost scheduled route), Sydney (via Auckland), Miami, New York-JFK, Los Angeles, São Paulo and Lima. SCL's 153 routes to 64 destinations across 33 airlines reflect a concentrated LATAM dominance layered with Sky Airline (Chile's leading low-cost carrier), JetSMART, American, Delta, United, Iberia, British Airways (seasonal), Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Emirates (via São Paulo), Qantas and Aerolíneas Argentinas. Santiago's position at the mid-latitude foot of the Andes gives it a natural role as South America's gateway to Oceania and trans-Pacific traffic — the Auckland sector in particular is one of the longest scheduled trans-oceanic routes in the Southern Hemisphere. Terrain and wind constraints make SCL one of the more technically demanding major South American airports to operate into.