Colombia's Taxi Blockade Shut Down El Dorado for 2 Days
Physical blockades of the road to Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport directly prevent travelers from reaching flights and create significant safety and logistics issues in Colombia.
Colombia's Taxi Blockade Shut Down El Dorado for 2 Days
Bogotá's El Dorado International Airport (BOG) was effectively cut off on April 8,9, 2026, when taxi drivers blockaded El Dorado Avenue (Calle 26) near avenues 103 and 110, protesting ride-hailing platforms and changes to airport taxi management. Clashes with police and airport security (UNDMO) turned the terminal's platform 1 and arrivals area into, honestly, a mobility nightmare. Passengers dragged luggage through gridlocked roads, missed connections and had zero warning from official sources , OPAIN's site showed no alerts.
The blockade, turns out, ended faster than expected. By April 10, negotiations with Taxi Imperial produced a 7-point agreement, including removal of certain white vehicles from the terminal and the main disruption cleared. No blockades are reported active post-April 10, so the airport is, frankly, operational again , though broader national farmer strikes were coinciding and blocking other routes around the same time, which didn't help.
Who gets hit hardest: travelers on tight itineraries, expats doing visa runs and digital nomads catching international connections, all of whom can't afford a 2-hour road standstill eating their buffer time. Tourists were warned to avoid the area during active clashes, the situation wasn't just inconvenient, it carried real safety risk near the terminal entrances.
What to do now:
- Build in buffer time , 3 to 4 hours before departure is the current standard advice for BOG, protest risk or not
- Monitor nomad news for any reignition of taxi or farmer-led disruptions, these things don't always stay resolved
- Ride-hailing apps (ironically the thing drivers were protesting) and public transit are your backup options if road access tightens again
- The U.S. State Department's Level 3 advisory for Colombia remains unchanged , general unrest, not specific to the airport, but worth factoring into plans
El Dorado also dealt with fog-related operational delays through March, so BOG has had a rough stretch. The taxi situation is resolved for now, don't assume it's permanent , labor grievances around ride-hailing aren't going away across Latin America and Bogotá's drivers have shown they're willing to escalate fast.
Read our full Colombia guide for the complete picture.