Is one hour enough for a connection in Bogota?

Question

I have a flight from Sao Paolo to Miami with Avianca with a 1 hour stopover in Bogota. Do you know if that is enough time? Do I need to go through customs to get to my connecting flight or can I go straight from the gate I arrive in Bogota in to my next flight?

Answer 1

You have low odds of being able to make this connection, I would suggest you take a direct flight from São Paulo to Miami since it should not be much more expensive than the one you're taking (especially considering the headache you might have by missing the connection).

Source: I live in the USA and go back and forth to/from São Paulo several times a year, and I used to go through the same route you are using. I have failed to make this very same connection a couple of times in the past.

Answer 2

If these are two separate tickets, you have no chance of making this.

If this is a single ticket, it's tight, but it's doable. When doing an international-to-international connection in Colombia, you don't need to clear customs or immigration. You may have to clear security (depending on airport, airline and departure city).

No connection is ever guaranteed. If you're traveling on a single ticket and do miss your connection through no fault of your own, the airline will rebook you on the next available flight, but this might be a day later.

Answer 3

If both flights are international flights with Avianca, they should both operate to/from Terminal 1, and you shouldn't have to go through immigration nor security.

If your first flight is on time, 1 hour should be plenty. But the margin is razor-thin for anything that can go wrong, a half-hour to one-hour delay is not uncommon at all for an international flight.

As a data point in case immigration/security are needed, a few months ago I had a similar connection in Bogota, and because of an issue with my ticket I had to print my second boarding pass at BOG. It took me 40 minutes to go through immigration, walk to the check-in area, print a boarding pass on a check-in machine, go through security, and walk to my departing gate. This of course can change depending on many variables.

Regardless of the above, since it is a single ticket, Avianca should protect you in case of a delay that makes you miss the connection.