SCL Construction updates
 

What's the latest state of affairs? Any road access changes of note? Rental car location? Any existing terminal modifications in preparation? And finally, what is the latest expected completion date?

I hear rumors of delays to the completion of the project.. The airport concession holder says the government is delaying the certification of some of the stages and that will mean late completion. Let me chase my man in SCL and I will report back

Here - Bs As.....

Just saw that yr premier program is Jumbo Mas . thats great ! If you are here you get Jumbo points for filling up at Axxion gas stations !

What a cluster @ SCL. I arrived 5 days ago - that was an efficient arrival, but my departure 4 days ago (morning) consisted of (1) the passport control desk at LATAM Preferente only having one officer, so it was barely moving, and the line went back into the check-in room. [I was not the only one to see that line, and go back downstairs to the regular line.] (2) My bus gate caused a fair delay (in addition to the delay due to late aircraft arrival in pea soup fog.). (3) The bus gate areas (international) are ridiculous - one line for general boarding, one line for preferente.

Of course, that wasn't as bad as my return today. Another "bus gate" with no bus and no one to roll up the stairway for some time. So much for my row 2 seat getting me more quickly to the line, which took an hour, only to find that the baggage carousel was already empty, with the electronic board above saying to go to the baggage service desk down the hall, where I waited some time, finally seeing my bag wheeled to the far left of me. 2 hours from landing to getting into a taxi, which was longer than the flight from EZE.

Fun

Is this all done?

Construction work will continue for the next 18 months at leatst

The first new gates of the new international terminal will be inauguarated in phases - new gates come on stream some time next year.

I had the dubious pleasure of staying a short night at the La Quinta hotel not far from the airport, last Thursday. My flight from Copiapó arrived (late) around 10pm and there was no hotel shuttle anywhere and no information on when one would get there, so I grabbed a cab and was charged CLP$10.000 for what was a very short ride. At least the cabbie was up front about why he had to rip me off: there was a two-kilometre "taco" (Chilenese for traffic jam) to get into the airport. They're busy on construction, that's for sure, and the roadway leading to the terminal is currently down to two narrow lanes that snake their way around the construction works on both sides of the road.

Quite the nightmare! So for those heading out to the airport at peak times, I suggest you leave yourselves lots of time to spare as I doubt last Thursday was an aberration.

Update: construction is advancing rapidly and they have managed to open the first eleven gates in the expanded airport, for international flights. The undulating roofline makes me think of Barajas T4. Overall it's not the most spectacular terminal I've seen but it has been built in record time and probably didn't cost a fortune, and it looks perfectly functional. Well done, now they just have to complete the rest of it...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7036d3f452.jpg

Thanks for the update. I was just through there a couple of weeks ago and saw "C" gates on the departure screens. Hopefully most of the international flights are getting a gate now. It looks like it is a nice long refreshing walk from those gates to the existing immigration facility!

Yes it will be a long walk and I imagine it will be at least another year before they move the customs & immigration facilities into the new terminal.

Any more update on the airport terminal construction status. Same request for to/from airport traffic. Thanks in advance.

SCL in March 2019, an absolute nightmare at immigration around 2 PM (90 minutes wait) and huge walking distances which is OK for me. This is not in line with the otherwise Chilean excellence.
Also they are chasing Uber and you have to take a free shuttle to one of the three airport parings where a car will readily pick you up. The shuttle distance is short. Rental car return is well organized and spacious.

I almost started a new thread ... but didn't.

What are the current state of affairs @ SCL? It has been nearly 2 years since my last visit.

Int'l Departures - still occurring in the "Old" hall? Does LATAM still have its Preferente check-in area to the far left?
Int'l Arrivals - any changes with location, obtaining taxi services, etc? How and where are the tramites regarding arrival PCR tests, etc., being handled?

As of a few months ago my in-person experience was (and I probably would have heard from people if there had been major changes since then):

Int'l Departures still in the "Old" Hall. I don't know if LATAM is still doing Preferred check-in in the upstairs location to the far-left, but the smaller immigration/security line that was up there is closed. AA check-in was the same as always.

Similar to pre-pandemic, many International flights depart from the new terminals, so it's a few minutes walk over to them.

International flights come into the new terminal and parts of the arrival experience have been completely reconfigured, with the first stop being to deal with C19 paperwork (these are set up all along the big open hallways that are below the departure level and that you can look down into from the departure level in the new terminal), then an all new PCR testing hall (my memory is hazy as to where that was, but I *think* it was somewhere in the old terminal, that after the C19 paperwork desks we walked that corridor to the old terminal and then got to the testing area?), then finally back to the old familiar reciprocity payment desks, down to immigration, through duty free, to baggage claim, and out through customs. Exiting customs is the same as always in terms of taxis, rentals cars, etc..

I'm flying into SCL next week - arriving and departing internationally (both to & from terminal 2), which I think is the new terminal, right?

I have almost an eight hour layover (sigh) - so can anyone let me know what facilities are now open in terminal 2? I've read that there are a limited number open, and I see there are no lounges listed ... are there at least restaurants and eating facilities? Trying to plan how many emergency supplies I need to bring with me to sustain an eight hour wait there ...