Getting around SCL
Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez airport runs as one connected complex, not two: Terminal 1 (domestic) is the original 1994 building, remodelled; Terminal 2 (international), delivered in February 2022, was built right beside it and joined by dedicated connecting buildings — a traveller who has changed terminals the hard way at other big Latin American hubs will find nothing to dread here, just a walk. The airport opened as “Aeropuerto Pudahuel” on 9 February 1967 and was renamed for Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez, founder of Chile’s air force, in 1980. In 2025 it handled 26.5 million passengers, 53% of them domestic. Chile’s three domestic carriers — LATAM, SKY Airline and JetSMART — fly out of T1; LATAM alone carries just over half of international traffic out of T2.
