Quito to the Galápagos: the complete flight guide
Two airlines, one narrow window in the morning, three government formalities and $220 in cash you cannot pay by card. None of it is difficult. All of it goes wrong if you find out at the airport.
The short version
- Only LATAM and Avianca fly to the islands. Any guide listing a third airline was written before October 2023.
- Every flight leaves in the morning, roughly 08:00–09:30 from Quito. There is no afternoon option.
- You need to be at the airport three hours early, and the airport is 45–60 minutes from the Old Town.
- Budget $220 per adult: $20 transit card, paid online or at the counter in Quito, and $200 park fee, cash, on arrival in the islands.
- Buy the transit card online before you fly. It is no longer sold at the counter the way it once was.
Only two airlines fly this route
LATAM and Avianca. That's the whole list.
You will find plenty of travel pages, some of them updated this year, telling you that three carriers serve the Galápagos. The third one is Equair, an Ecuadorian airline that shut down in September 2023. Its passengers were absorbed by LATAM. If a guide still lists it, that guide has not been checked in three years — which is worth remembering when it also quotes you a park fee of $100.
Neither airline is meaningfully better than the other on this route. Book on schedule and price, not on brand.
Baltra or San Cristóbal?
There are two island airports. Seymour Airport on Baltra (GPS) serves Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora, where most hotels and most cruise departures are. San Cristóbal (SCY) serves Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
Do not choose on price. Choose the one your cruise or your hotel tells you to choose. Landing on the wrong island is not a short taxi ride away — it is a ferry crossing and most of a day. If you have booked a cruise, let the operator book your island flight, because their itinerary is tied to specific arrival times.
You can fly into one and out of the other. That works well for land-based trips and your operator can arrange it.
Quito or Guayaquil?
Almost every flight from Quito stops in Guayaquil anyway — it's a technical stop of roughly 40 minutes, and you usually stay on the aircraft. So the real question is where you want to spend the night before, not which airport is faster.
Quito wins on two counts. It has the Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and genuinely one of the best-preserved colonial centres in the Americas. And it sits at 2,850 m, which means that if your trip also includes the Andes, your body starts adapting the moment you land. Guayaquil is at sea level and has no equivalent to spend an afternoon in.
The counter-argument is honest: Guayaquil is warmer, lower and slightly closer to the islands. If you arrive exhausted and altitude worries you, it is a reasonable choice.
Why every flight leaves in the morning — and what that does to your plans
This is the part that catches people, and it is the reason this page exists.
Departures from Quito cluster between roughly 08:17 and 09:18. There is no lunchtime flight, no evening flight. Now work backwards, because the sequence at the airport is longer than a normal domestic flight:
- 04:30Leave the hotel. Yes, really.
- 05:20Arrive at Mariscal Sucre. The airport is in Tababela, 45 km from the Old Town.
- 05:30INGALA / CGREG counter: validate your transit card. Queue is long if people around you didn't pre-register.
- 06:00SICGAL biosecurity: your checked bags are inspected for seeds, fruit, plants and single-use plastic. They get a seal.
- 06:30Airline check-in — only now, and only with the seal and the card.
- 07:15Security and gate.
- 08:17Wheels up.
Now notice what this makes impossible. You cannot land in Quito on an international flight at 22:00 and take the 08:17 to Baltra the next morning without a bed in between — you'd be clearing immigration and collecting luggage around midnight, and back at the airport five hours later. And if your international flight is delayed, which happens, you don't miss a connection. You miss the only flight of the day, and on a cruise departure that can mean missing the boat entirely.
This is why we ask guests to plan at least one full night in Quito before the islands, and preferably two. It is not upselling. It is the arithmetic of a morning-only route.
A note on altitude, since you're here anyway
Quito sits at 2,850 m (9,350 ft). Most people feel it mildly on the first day: shortness of breath on stairs, a headache, poor sleep. Two nights takes most of the edge off. Since you have to spend the night in Quito regardless, spending two turns an obligation into an acclimatisation you'll be grateful for if the Andes are also on your itinerary.
What to do before you leave home
Three online formalities and one trip to the cash machine. Do them the week before, not the night before.
1 · The Transit Control Card (TCT), $20
Also called the INGALA card or the TCC. It is how the islands track who comes and goes. Since mid-2025 it is bought through the Galápagos government's online platform rather than over the counter, and you should absolutely do it that way — the queue at 05:30 is made up almost entirely of people who didn't.
Save the QR code to your phone and print it. You still have to present it at the INGALA counter in Quito with your passport and your return ticket, and you will be asked for it again when you leave the islands. Do not lose it, do not let it get wet.
2 · The biosafety sworn declaration, free
An online form declaring what you're bringing. Complete it in the 48–72 hours before your flight and keep the QR code. Paper forms are no longer handed out on the plane or at the airport, so if you skip this you will be filling it in on your phone in the terminal while the queue moves without you.
3 · Ecuador's customs form (FRA), free
This one is for entering Ecuador itself, not the islands, and it has been required since mid-2025. Complete it online before you land in Quito.
The two forms, direct from the source
Transit Control Card · $20
Consejo de Gobierno de Galápagos. Buy before you fly and save the QR.
siig-registro.gobiernogalapagos.gob.ec
Biosafety declaration · free
Agencia de Bioseguridad. Complete it in the 48–72 hours before you fly.
declaracion.abgalapagos.gob.ecThese are the official government platforms, the same ones advertised on the signage at Quito airport. You should not be paying an agency a fee to fill either of them in for you. If a website asks for more than $20 for the transit card, it is not this one.
4 · Cash, and specifically clean cash
Ecuador uses the US dollar, which surprises a lot of visitors. The national park fee is collected on arrival in the islands and card payment cannot be relied on — the terminals go offline, and there is no cash machine at Baltra airport.
Bring the exact amount in clean, unfolded, untorn bills. Worn or damaged notes get refused, and this is not a negotiation you will win at 10 a.m. on an island. If you need to withdraw, do it in Quito. We can point you to a machine two minutes from the hotel, and we can break large notes for you before you go.
What the trip actually costs
| Per foreign adult | Cost |
|---|---|
| Return flight Quito–Galápagos Varies widely by season and how early you book | $300–500 |
| Transit Control Card (TCT) Online, before you fly | $20 |
| National Park entrance fee Cash on arrival · $100 for children under 12 | $200 |
| Before accommodation and tours | $520–720 |
The park fee doubled in August 2024, from $100 to $200 for foreign adults. Reduced rates apply to Ecuadorian nationals and to citizens of neighbouring Andean and Mercosur countries. If a page quotes you $100 for a foreign adult, it is out of date — and a family of four budgeting from that page will arrive $400 short, in an airport with no cash machine.
One booking trap worth knowing: fares for foreign visitors and fares for Ecuadorian residents are different products. If you book a resident fare without being one, the difference is charged at the airport. Book the visitor fare.
What not to put in your bag
The biosecurity inspection is quick but real, and it exists for a good reason: introduced species are the single biggest threat to the islands' ecosystems.
- No fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts or plants of any kind
- No meat, dairy or unprocessed food
- No soil on hiking boots — knock them clean before you pack
- Single-use plastics are restricted on the islands
- Sealed, commercially packaged snacks are generally fine
- Bring reef-safe sunscreen; it is increasingly enforced on water activities
The practical version: eat the fruit at breakfast, don't take it with you.
Two details about the flight itself
Flight time. Around two to two and a half hours from Quito including the Guayaquil stop. You generally stay aboard.
Time zone. The Galápagos are one hour behind mainland Ecuador. Change your watch on landing, and check whether your operator quotes pickup times in island time — this is a surprisingly common way to be an hour late for a boat.
Coming back is a different problem
Flights leave the islands after midday and land in Quito in the late afternoon, usually somewhere between 16:00 and 18:00. Most international flights out of Quito leave late at night.
That leaves a gap of six or eight hours, at the end of a week on a boat, with your luggage. The airport is not a good place to spend it and neither is a café with a suitcase.
Day Use: a room for the hours between the islands and your flight home
A private room, a hot shower, somewhere to repack, and a bed — without paying for a night you won't sleep in. Ten minutes on foot from the Plaza Grande, so you can spend the last afternoon in the Old Town instead of the departure lounge.
Ask about Day UseThe five mistakes we see most
- Connecting the same day. An international arrival and a morning island flight don't fit in one night. This is the expensive one.
- Budgeting $100 for the park fee. It's $200, and it's cash.
- Bringing worn banknotes. Torn or heavily creased bills get refused.
- Skipping the online forms. You'll do them anyway, standing up, at 05:40.
- Choosing the island airport on price. Choose the one your cruise or hotel requires.
What we do for guests flying out
Breakfast is served early enough for an 04:30 departure — tell reception the night before and it will be waiting. We arrange the airport transfer, we hold luggage you don't want to take to the islands, and we can break large notes into the clean bills you'll need for the park fee.
If your island flight moves, which it sometimes does, tell us. Rearranging a day around a changed flight is not something a booking site can do for you.
Take this guide with you
Save it before you leave Quito. You'll want the checklist at 05:30 in a queue.
