San Andrés, San Andrés and Providencia Department, Caribbean Region, Colombia

🇨🇴 San Andrés is the capital city of the department of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, in Colombia.

Overview It is situated at the north end of San Andrés Island, on the Caribbean Sea. The population is considered to be about 20% Raizals and 80% mainland Colombians. The economy is mainly sustained by tourism and commercial fishing. Once a duty-free port, it still has a relatively vigorous shopping district selling various consumer goods at bargain prices, including Colombian gold and emerald jewellery, leather goods and other distinctively Colombian wares.

San Andrés has become such a byword for bargain shopping in Colombia that many towns and cities have a bargain shopping area known as a San Andresito ("little San Andres").

Transport: Air Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (IATA: ADZ) serves the towns of San Andrés and San Luis, but also commercially serves the nearby island of Providencia Island through feeder flights from El Embrujo Airport. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport was initially called Sesquicentenario International Airport. It is the 6th busiest airport in Colombia, handling 836,234 passengers in 2006. Most of these passengers come from the continental part of the country, due to poor international direct service to the island. Many international tourists have to fly to one of Colombia's largest airports to be able to reach the islands. Copa Airlines maintains a passenger service between San Andrés and Panama City. In 2021, American Airlines began serving San Andrés nonstop from Miami. In recent years, San Andrés has also received seasonal charter flights, mainly from Canada and a few Central American countries.

The airport is one of Colombia's fastest growing airports with a 13.4% increase in the number of passengers between 2005 and 2006.