It’s worth noting that despite the hotel being on the
airport property the driver still physically locked our bags into the boot of
the car. I suspect this is a city to be careful in. After a 5 minute drive we were dropped at the
Marriott Courtyard Bogota Airport. The hotel is nine floors high with 8 floors
of rooms and the 9th floor contains two meeting rooms. The room keys
only allow access to the floor you are staying on and the Ground and 9th
floor. We were allocated room 705 which is advertised as an Airport view room,
it actually looks over the hangar area and Runway 13L / 31R. there are no views
of the airport or runway 13R / 31L from the room however there is a table and a
couple of chairs in the lift lobby where arrivals onto 13R can be seen although
I am not certain that departures from 13R will be seen as the emergency
staircase for the hotel may block the view on rotation. We were fortunate that
arrangements had been made to access a meeting room on the 9th floor
where all movements can be seen. Between 22:00 and approximately midnight we
logged 82 unique aircraft and made 23 of them.
Knowing that time was limited sectors are sometimes long in this part of the world we set a very early alarm call and were back in the meeting room by 5AM once it had become light part of the cargo and military areas came into view however its advisable to have a ADSB stick running to keep an eye on things as not all the military aircraft display on the trackers. Between 5AM and 1PM excluding a break for breakfast 102 unique aircraft were logged and 49 were made, including some elderly military frames. I then caught the 1PM shuttle bus the airport and was quickly airside.
A few notes on Bogota.
Looking at the airport on a map, the terminal is a U shape and the lefthand most side and inside of the “U” is domestic and the righthand side of the “U” is the international pier, some of the gates at the top of the right hand side of the “U” can be switched to international or domestic gates. I was flying international and was able to get to the end of the pier and take some photographs of the military ramp opposite however shortly after I had finished security arrived and asked me to leave as they were converting the gates to domestic gates and needed me to vacate the area. Once these gates are in domestic configuration you cannot get a view over the military ramp. All the movements on 13L / 31R can be seen through the large windows in the international terminal however movements on 13R / 31L are much harder to see from the international gates. Satena don’t operate from the main terminal area and have their own separate terminal between the international gates and Marriott courtyard. I didn’t investigate if there were any views of this area as we were able to see the aircraft taxing into and out of this area. The hanger area was much tidier that I would have expected of a South American airport and whilst there are a few wrecks and relics the area mostly contains in service frames, There are a lot of stored and in service aircraft in the military area assuming the usual landing direction and daylight a LHS window seat is required on arrival and also for departure.
Looking at the airport on a map, the terminal is a U shape and the lefthand most side and inside of the “U” is domestic and the righthand side of the “U” is the international pier, some of the gates at the top of the right hand side of the “U” can be switched to international or domestic gates. I was flying international and was able to get to the end of the pier and take some photographs of the military ramp opposite however shortly after I had finished security arrived and asked me to leave as they were converting the gates to domestic gates and needed me to vacate the area. Once these gates are in domestic configuration you cannot get a view over the military ramp. All the movements on 13L / 31R can be seen through the large windows in the international terminal however movements on 13R / 31L are much harder to see from the international gates. Satena don’t operate from the main terminal area and have their own separate terminal between the international gates and Marriott courtyard. I didn’t investigate if there were any views of this area as we were able to see the aircraft taxing into and out of this area. The hanger area was much tidier that I would have expected of a South American airport and whilst there are a few wrecks and relics the area mostly contains in service frames, There are a lot of stored and in service aircraft in the military area assuming the usual landing direction and daylight a LHS window seat is required on arrival and also for departure.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/U6sTYQrwA22YHcnz5
Conference room view.
Area on 9th floor.
Hangar view from conference room.
View of both runways from conference room.