How to Get to The Galapagos Islands

Galapagos Flights : the only way to go to Galapagos is taking a flight from Quito or Guayaquil. flying into the GPS is limited to two islands;San Cristobal and Baltra.
Private aircraft must use Baltra as it is the airport equipped with overnight plane accommodations. All flights to the Galapagos Islands start from the from mainland Ecuador (Quito or Guayaquil). There are currently no direct international flights to Galapagos. See How to get to Ecuador for international flight information. All travelers must make sure you coordinate your flights to Galapagos with your Galapagos tour. There are 2 main airports in Galapagos. Cruises and tours start from different islands on different days.

Flights from the mainland arrive at two airports: Isla Baltra just north of Santa Cruz and Isla San Cristóbal. There are almost an equal number of flights to Baltra and San Cristóbal. Every two or three years the Baltra airport undergoes repairs and all flights are diverted to San Cristóbal for up to several months.

Two major airlines flying to the Galápagos Islands are TAME https://www.tame.com.ec/ , Aerogal http://www.aerogal.com.ec/ and LAN airlines TAME operates two morning flights daily from Quito via Guayaquil to both the Isla Baltra airport, just over an hour away from Puerto Ayora by public transportation and the San Cristóbal airport. AeroGal has three flights daily from Quito to Isla Baltra and San Cristóbal via Guayaquil. All return flights are in the early afternoons of the same days. Icaro (Guayaquil 04-229 4265; www.icaro.com.ec) also flies to San Cristóbal three times a week.
Flights from Guayaquil cost high season/low season $344/300 round-trip and take 1½ hours. From Quito, flights cost $390/344 round-trip and take 3¼ hours, due to the layover in Guayaquil (you do not have to get off the plane). It’s also possible to fly from Quito and return to Guayaquil or vice versa. There is a limit of 20kg of checked luggage (per person) on the flight to the Galápagos.
Ecuadorian nationals can fly from Guayaquil for half the price foreigners pay, and Galápagos residents pay half that again. Some foreign residents of Ecuador or workers in the islands are also eligible, so if you have a residence visa you should make inquiries.
There is a Hercules military plane that flies to the islands every other Wednesday that occasionally has room for foreign passengers. Make inquiries at Avenida de la Prensa 3570, a few hundred meters from the Quito airport (ask for Departamento de Operaciones, Fuerza Aerea del Ecuador). Flights go from Quito via Guayaquil and stop at both San Cristóbal and Baltra. Foreigners pay about $300 round-trip for either destination.
Flights to the Galápagos are sometimes booked solid well in advance, but you’ll often find that there are many no-shows. Travel agencies book blocks of seats for their all-inclusive Galápagos Islands tours. They will release the seats on the day of the flight when there is no longer any hope of selling their tour.

Galapagos Islands are located 600miles (1060km) west of the Ecuadorian mainland in the Pacific Ocean. To get there, we recommend all travelers must follow the indications detailed below: 

1. Take an international flight to Ecuador, to arrive either at the city of Quito (in the Andes Mountain Region) or at the city of Guayaquil (in the Coast). There are direct non-stop flights from several US cities like Houston, New York and Miami, as well as from European cities like Madrid.

Important: We advise you arrive at least 2 days before your scheduled Galapagos travel dates (especially for cruises) in case there are flight delays or cancellations. We have had several occasions where guests missed their cruise because of flight delays and they had to join a couple of days later.

2. Take a domestic flight out to the Galapagos Islands, Starting from the city of Quito or the city of Guayaquil. There are two airports in Galapagos: One on Baltra Island (where you need to fly to if staying in Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz Island) and the other in the port town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, on San Cristobal Island. Which airport you fly to will depend on where your Galapagos trip starts from. Flights departing from Quito stop in Guayaquil before continuing to the Galapagos Islands. The flight time between Quito and Guayaquil is roughly 35 minutes and from Guayaquil to Galapagos is roughly 1 hour and a half.