No single figure fits every flight. Work backwards instead: start from the deadline your airline sets for check-in or bag drop, add the drive to the airport, then add a margin that depends on the day and the hour.
Start with your airline’s deadline
Every airline states when its desks stop accepting passengers and bags and when boarding closes. This differs between airlines, between international and domestic flights, and according to whether you have bags to check. Look on your ticket, in the confirmation email or in the airline’s app. On an international flight you also go through emigration control after security, which takes extra time.
Know which airport you are leaving from
Buenos Aires has two. Ezeiza handles most international flights, lies outside the city and is reached on the Riccheri motorway. Aeroparque is inside the city, on the riverside. Check the code on your ticket, EZE or AEP, because the drive is completely different.
What stretches the drive
- Rush hour. In the morning traffic flows towards the centre, in the evening away from it.
- Rain. Everything slows down and cars are harder to find.
- Friday afternoons and the eve of a long weekend. The roads out of the city fill up.
- Demonstrations and street closures. They are common in the centre and force detours.
- Football matches and concerts. The streets around the stadiums clog up.
- Roadworks and accidents on the motorways. Nobody can predict them, which is why a margin exists.
- Where you start. Leaving from Palermo is not the same as leaving from the northern suburbs or the south of Greater Buenos Aires.
What takes time inside the airport
- Checking in suitcases or special luggage.
- Travelling with small children, older relatives or someone who needs assistance.
- Moving as a group.
- High season: summer and winter school holidays and long weekends.
How your choice of transport changes the sum
- City bus. The cheapest and slowest way, and awkward with suitcases. Add the wait at the stop.
- Street taxi or ride-hailing app. It depends on a car being free at that moment. Late at night or in the rain it can take a while.
- Pre-booked transfer. The departure time is fixed in advance. When you book with us, you give us the flight time and the address, and we agree the pick-up time for Ezeiza or Aeroparque.
If you are torn between two pick-up times, take the earlier one. Waiting at the gate is easier than watching the clock on the motorway.