Review of Wingo flight from Cartagena to San Andrés in Economy

Colombia's Unknown Gem

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!

This is the 4th FR from my January trip to the US and Colombia and will cover a domestic flight from Cartagena to… the Caribbean?? Yes! Colombia actually owns three islands in the middle of the Caribbean Sea - San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. It's a part of Colombia that not a lot of people know about and is geographically much closer to Nicaragua than Colombia. The islands are contested by Nicaragua but as of 2025, they are firmly a part of Colombia. 

Needless to say, it's an incredibly popular tourist destination for Colombians (imagine Germany having an island or city in Southern Europe.) However, it's largely unknown internationally (I mean, I don't blame them, no one goes to Colombia to visit the Caribbean). I discovered the island randomly when looking through FlightRadar24 and saw a ton of Colombian planes going to this unknown island. It was the first place I thought of when planning my last-minute trip to Colombia. 

This flight will be operated by Wingo, the low-cost subsidiary of Copa. Booking with them was an absolute pain as their website doesn't accept international cards (it just gets declined with 'incorrect expiry date' as the reason). I tried with multiple cards on both the website and app but couldn't make it work. In the end, I just gave up and booked it via a third-party (which I hate doing). I paid US$78. which was around $10 more than what it would've been on their website. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

Cartagena Rafael Núñez International Airport (CTG)

You join me in the (very crowded) check-in area right after my flight from Orlando. 

Curiously, the airport only offers 30 minutes of free wi-fi, which is the lowest amount I've seen anywhere. You really have to choose well how to use it haha. 

The drop-off area outside. 

Another photo of the check-in area. Bizarrely, there are no departure boards in the entire airport (yes… really). I've walked around everywhere and couldn't find one (including outside). Before you mention the big screen on the right - that displays gates but not the check-in desks. I've honestly got no idea how people don't get lost here…

At least the airport isn't big and there are large signs for each airline, which helps.

Check-in took over an hour. This is due to San Andrés needing all tourists to buy a tourist card. The 'card' costs COP135,000 (~$32) as of January 2025 and it's just an entry form. It's basically a tax for tourists heading to the island (the card just proves you've paid). You have to pay during check-in (or at the gate at some airports). Wingo does give you the option to pay online however that wasn't possible for me as they don't accept foreign cards (as I mentioned in the intro). 

The actual check-in process took 45 minutes with another 15 minutes spent queueing to pay the tax. Here's the card, by the way. 

Security took 5 minutes with very relaxed/uninterested staff. No one cared if you set off the metal detectors and honestly, I doubt they really checked the scanners either. So different from security at Orlando I went through earlier today. 

Photo of the departures area. 

Yeah, it's very busy. There's also a food court upstairs (behind me) but I didn't have time to check it out as check-in took ages. 

The Flight

Flight time to San Andrés will be just over an hour and here's our very inspiring route: 

Boarding started on time with announcements only in Spanish. I had no idea what was happening… except chaos. It was madness with people pushing around, queues merging together before splitting out again, people cutting the queue. It was supposed to be done in groups (apparently) but was never enforced. 

Here's our plane:

Some information about our plane:

Type: Boeing 737-800
Registration: HP-1537CMP
First flight: 19 November 2009
Age: ~15 years
Config: Y186

Fun fact: Did you know Panama has the longest aircraft registration with 7 letters after the prefix (HP). The last 3 letters denote the airline's ICAO code (CMP for Copa Airlines).

Wingo/Copa logo right by the door.

Photo of the tray table and seatback pocket. 

Legroom is… LCC standards let's just say. 

View out of the window with a Copa Boeing 737-800 heading to Panama City (PTY) and a KLM Boeing 787-10 heading back to Amsterdam (AMS). KLM actually flies Amsterdam-Bogota-Cartagena-Amsterdam 3 times a week. Despite its small size, Cartagena actually sees a lot of long-haul flights, including Plus Ultra A330s to Madrid (MAD), Neos 787s to Milan (MXP) via Punta Cana (PUJ) and Edelweiss A340s to Zurich (ZRH). You can tell it's a rather popular tourist destination looking at the airlines coming here. 

While we've still got light, let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket. It includes:

- A safety card
- A tour ad? Never knew Wingo operates tours as well. I know a lot of airlines (especially in Europe) are starting to offer package holidays/tours, not sure how common that is in South America. 
- And a buy-onboard menu. Prices are very cheap… for a European/North American perspective (obviously). No clue what the cost of living is in Colombia (prices are very inflated on the island, obviously). 

Pushback on time. 

A rather nice sunset as we taxi to the runway. 

Takeoff! Bye bye Cartagena. 

Rapidly losing sunlight as we climb above the clouds. 

The flight was… rather interesting. Like all flights to popular tourist destinations, cramming 186 excited tourists in a plane together results in… unusual events occurring. I had no idea what was happening as everything was in Spanish, but there were a couple of moments where the entire cabin would erupt in cheers. I do love tourist flights for its unpredictability and chaos, although I'd much rather be sleeping in peace after my 8am flight from Orlando haha. 

Anyway, first views of San Andrés. You can see the outline of the island very well just by its lights. 

It would've been a rather nice approach in daylight as we did a full 180° turn around the island. Oh well, can't have everything I suppose. 

Welcome to San Andrés! We arrived on time. 

San Andrés Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (ADZ)

The airport was named after former president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who ordered the construction of the airport. 

Walking to the terminal. 

'Immigration' (yes, there's actually a mini-immigration check, despite it being a domestic flight) took 10 minutes and consisted of a quick passport and tourist card check. Quick tip to anyone coming here - make sure to fill out your card on the plane! It sounds obvious but I felt like 2/3 of the plane didn't, resulting in a massive group of people piled around the walls trying to fill it in last minute. I saved myself at least 30 minutes jumping the queue with a filled card. Also make sure to keep it as they'll scan it again when you leave the island! 

A more in-depth look at San Andrés airport will come later in the series (it was dark… I had a long day… I kinda forgot to photograph anything haha). A tourism bonus of the island is available below, feel free to check that out. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one! ;)