# Flying in with a bike

One airport that matters — and one number that really varies between airlines: what they charge to carry the bike.

Published: 15 JUN 2026 · Updated: 4 JUL 2026 · By: Pedaleando Uruguay

Original: https://pedaleando-uruguay.bike/plan/by-air

Almost every international flight lands at one place: Carrasco, Montevideo's airport, about nineteen kilometres from the city. (Punta del Este has an airport too, but it's seasonal and regional — not a way into the country from abroad.)

**From Europe**, two airlines fly nonstop from Madrid. Iberia runs the route as IB167 and IB169, around thirteen hours; Air Europa flies it as UX45 four times a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Everything else routes through a hub: KLM, Air France and TAP connect via São Paulo, Lufthansa via Buenos Aires, and Avianca comes down from Bogotá. From São Paulo, LATAM makes the short final hop to Montevideo daily.

**From North America**, the picture is seasonal. American flies nonstop from Miami only in the southern-hemisphere summer — a few times a week through most of it, daily during the December-to-February peak — and drops the route the rest of the year. The steadier option is Copa, which connects through Panama City year-round, roughly twenty-one times a week.

**Then the part that actually decides your trip: the bike.** Most airlines treat a boxed bicycle as a piece of checked luggage, but the fee and the paperwork vary widely. American and United charge the standard bag rate, around thirty-five to forty dollars, with no need to book ahead. The European carriers want more, and want notice: KLM around a hundred euros, Air France roughly forty to a hundred and twenty-five, Lufthansa eighty to two hundred, each needing forty-eight to seventy-two hours' warning. LATAM and Copa land around a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars. Iberia is the awkward one — its published policy isn't clear, and a fee of roughly forty-five to fifty-five euros may apply, so confirm it directly when you book. (Aerolíneas Argentinas has quoted about a hundred dollars, but that figure is a few years old — check it.)

**Packing is the same everywhere:** turn the handlebars in line with the frame, take the pedals off, let some air out of the tyres, and box or bag the bike. A cardboard bike box from a local shop works; a padded case protects better and costs more.

From Carrasco it's a taxi or airport shuttle into the city, with room to reassemble the bike landside if you'd rather ride in. From here, many riders pair the flight with [the ferry](https://pedaleando-uruguay.bike/plan/by-ferry) across the river, or read up on [coming in from Argentina](https://pedaleando-uruguay.bike/plan/from-argentina).

Sources

1. Funds Society. [American Airlines resumes direct flight between Montevideo and Miami.](https://fundssociety.com/en/news/business/american-airlines-resumes-direct-flight-between-montevideo-and-miami/) *fundssociety.com*. **Accessed** 3 · JUL · 2026