Belize City's Two Airports: BZE or Municipal (TZA), and Which One Your Flight Uses

Verified on 24 September 2026, on Tropic Air’s and Maya Island Air’s own booking engines (for travel dates between 25 September and 5 October 2026, each named where it is used), the airport operator’s Quick Facts page, and both airlines’ own sites.

Belize City has two airports, and only one of them is international. Philip S. W. Goldson International — code BZE — is ten miles (16 km) from the city centre, in Ladyville, and “currently serves all international flights into, and out of, the country”. Belize City Municipal — code TZA, officially the Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport — is approximately a mile (1.5 km) outside downtown and “is solely for domestic flights”. Both quotes are Tropic Air’s. So if you are flying in from abroad, you land at BZE. Both of Belize’s domestic airlines, Tropic Air and Maya Island Air, fly to San Pedro from both airports, and on the dates we priced, Municipal was cheaper every day on Maya Island Air, while on Tropic Air the answer changed at the weekend.

On the two routes we priced, the trade is this: Municipal was the cheaper airport on weekday fares, the BZE flights were the same length or shorter, and on the San Pedro route Tropic Air’s weekend fares from BZE undercut Municipal outright.

Which airport does what

Every international flight lands at BZE; which cities those flights come from, month by month, is on our nonstop flights to Belize page. Tropic Air “operates hubs at both airports”, and Maya Island Air lists “Belize City (International)” and “Belize City (Municipal)” as two separate stations, so for Belize’s domestic flights the airport printed on your ticket is the one to go to.

At BZE, the airport operator lists check-in by terminal. Terminal 1: Copa, Sun Country, TAG, Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. Terminal 2: Air Canada, Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest, United and WestJet.

San Pedro from either airport: fares for the same travel dates

One adult, one way. Each figure is the lowest fare the airline’s booking engine showed for that date, read on 24 September 2026; we did not take either booking through to payment.

The weekend reversal is Tropic Air’s only. Its BZE fare dropped to USD 33.88 on the Saturday and Sunday, while its Municipal fare stayed at USD 68.50 every day. Maya Island Air’s two fares did not move across the seven days we read, so on Maya Municipal was the cheaper airport every day, weekend included. These are single reads of dated fares, not a price list. Our BZE airport to San Pedro page has earlier Tropic Air reads for other dates and prices the water-taxi alternative door to door.

The departures behind those fares

On the Tropic Air date we read, the early flights were all from Municipal: its first San Pedro departure left TZA at 7:30 AM and BZE at 10:40 AM.

Tropic Air’s own page and its booking engine disagree on frequency. Its Belize City airports page says Tropic Air “offers hourly flights between Belize Municipal and San Pedro”. Its booking engine showed seven departures on Friday 25 September, two hours apart for most of the day.

Placencia from either airport: the Municipal flight calls at BZE

Tropic Air only; we did not price Maya Island Air on this route. Read 24 September 2026, for travel on Friday 25 September.

Both Municipal departures stop at BZE and reach Placencia at the same minute as a BZE departure — 10:50 AM and 4:45 PM. From Municipal the fare is USD 20.50 less (our subtraction), there is one departure fewer that day, and there was no flight at all on the weekend we read. If you have just landed at BZE, Tropic Air’s Placencia flights leave from there; going to Municipal first would mean a taxi ride to board a plane that then stops at BZE anyway.

Getting between the two airports

Distance: nothing we read gives a distance between the two airports. Tropic Air puts BZE ten miles (16 km) from the centre and Municipal about a mile (1.5 km) from downtown; we have not subtracted one from the other, because nothing we read says the two sit on one straight line from the centre.

Time: the figures that exist disagree, and none of them is for the airport-to-airport trip specifically.

JETS’s 9 miles for the same trip is a mile short of the airport operator’s 10 and Tropic Air’s ten. The airport operator was also posting a road advisory when we checked: “Roadwork and dredging are currently underway on the airport access road”, with the advice to “Leave extra time”.

Taxi fare: the only figure we found for a taxi between the two airports is BZ$50 each way — “the $50.00 BZD taxi ride each way” — on two island websites whose wording is near-identical: ambergriscaye.com’s help article, which carries no date, and tacogirl.com’s version, last modified on 20 November 2021, which adds that “all prices are in Belize Dollars”. Because one copies the other, that is one source, not two, and it is at least four years old (our arithmetic from the 2021 date). BZ$50 is US$25 at Belize’s fixed 2:1 peg (our conversion). Neither site says whether that is per car or per person. What the taxis at BZE themselves publish is on our BZE airport taxi prices page.

What that old figure means against the fares above (our arithmetic, one traveller, one way): Tropic Air’s USD 41.50 weekday saving from Municipal and Maya Island Air’s USD 35.01 are both more than US$25. At the weekend there was nothing to offset — Tropic Air’s BZE fare was already the lower one before any taxi.

A shuttle that stops at both: Untame Belize says its Belize City shuttle “makes regular stops at the Sir Barry Bowen Airport (commonly called the Belize City Municipal Airport), the water taxi docks, and the Belize international airport.” Its shuttles page shows no price for that run.

Connecting at BZE: Tropic Air’s minimums

Tropic Air’s Check-In & Connecting Flight Policy sets these times:

If the incoming international flight is delayed but arrives the same day, Tropic Air “will rebook you on the next available flight with open seats. In some cases, this may be a flight on the following day.” Separately, the airport operator’s Quick Facts page says: “Passengers are encouraged to arrive 3 to 4 hours before scheduled departure of flight.”

Cruise passengers

Tropic Air’s cruise page tells cruise passengers to “take a five minute taxi ride to the Tropic Air terminal at the Belize City Municipal Airport (TZA)”, and to book the return flight “allowing a two hour window to return to your assigned tender departure time”. Tender times and shore-day arithmetic are on our Belize City cruise port page.

At BZE: parking and car hire

The airport operator’s Quick Facts page: Car Park A users “pay a US$2.00 exit fee”, and “Overnight parking is also available at US$9.00 per night”. Across from the terminal is a rental services centre with 14 car-rental agencies; what they charge is on our Belize car rental costs page.

Municipal’s 2016 rebuild

The San Pedro Sun reported the airport’s inauguration as the Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport on Friday 11 November 2016, after a “$17 million investment” — the report does not say in which currency. It describes “an expanded runway: 2,900 feet long and 60 feet wide, with a parallel taxiway measuring 2,700 feet long”, and new lighting “to accommodate the landing of aircrafts at night”. For scale, the airport operator gives BZE’s runway as 9,900 feet.

What the airports and airlines don’t publish

• Municipal’s opening hours. None of the Tropic Air, Maya Island Air or airport-operator pages we read states them, and we could not locate a Belize Airports Authority page for TZA.
• A current taxi fare between the two airports from any primary source — the only figure is the BZ$50 above, from island websites, the dated one from 2021.
• A shuttle price for BZE to Municipal. JETS Shuttle’s product-category and policies pages returned an error (HTTP 403) to us on 24 September 2026, and Untame Belize names Municipal as a stop without a price.
• A distance between the two airports, from any source we read.
• A current printed timetable from Maya Island Air. The timetable graphics on its flight-schedule page are served with a Last-Modified date of 8 February 2023, so we used its booking engine instead.
• Any other route. We priced San Pedro on both airlines and Placencia on Tropic Air only. Caye Caulker, Dangriga, Punta Gorda and Corozal were not priced from both airports, and the pattern above says nothing about them.

How we researched this

Scope: this page reports source research, not a trip. Every fare, departure time, stop and travel time comes from the two airlines’ own booking engines, loaded in an ordinary browser on 24 September 2026: Tropic Air for Friday 25 September 2026, with its date strip for 26 to 28 September, and Maya Island Air for Friday 2 October 2026, with its calendar for 29 September to 5 October. The fares are the engines’ own “From” figures; we did not put either booking into a basket. The airport names, codes, distances and “international / domestic” split come from Tropic Air’s airports page, Maya Island Air’s home page and the airport operator’s Quick Facts page. The connection minimums are Tropic Air’s own policy page. The taxi fare is the only secondary figure on the page and is labelled as such everywhere it appears; the 2016 rebuild comes from a local newspaper. Figures marked our arithmetic are subtractions or conversions we made from those sourced numbers.

Sources

• Tropic Air — Belize City airports (TZA and BZE) — BZE serving all international flights and acting as a domestic hub, TZA “solely for domestic flights” and the main cargo hub, hubs at both, the one-mile and ten-mile distances, and the “hourly flights” line
• Tropic Air booking engine — BZE to San Pedro and TZA to San Pedro — the USD 110.00, 33.88, 130.88 and 68.50 fares, both departure lists, the 13- and 20-minute travel times and the “1 Stop via CUK” routing; read 24 September 2026 for 25 to 28 September
• Tropic Air booking engine — BZE to Placencia and TZA to Placencia — the USD 155.00 and 134.50 fares, the departure and arrival times, the “1 Stop via DGA” and “2 Stops via BZE” routings, and the weekend “No Flight”; read 24 September 2026 for 25 to 28 September
• Maya Island Air booking engine — BZE to San Pedro and TZA to San Pedro — the USD 102.01 and 67.00 fares across 29 September to 5 October, both departure lists and their durations, and the station names “Belize International (BZE)” and “Belize Municipal (TZA)”; read 24 September 2026 for 2 October
• Maya Island Air — home page — “Belize City (International)” and “Belize City (Municipal)” as separate stations, and the Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport, St. Matthew’s Street address
• Maya Island Air — flight schedule — timetable graphics served with a Last-Modified date of 8 February 2023
• Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — Quick Facts — “Airport Code: MZBZ”, the 10-mile distance, the 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. hours, the terminal check-in list, the 3-to-4-hour arrival advice, the 9,900-foot runway, the car park charges, the 14 rental agencies, and the road advisory
• Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — Direct Flights to Belize, 29 January 2026 — “just twenty minutes outside of Belize City”
• Tropic Air — Check-In & Connecting Flight Policy — the 30-minute, 2-hour and 3-hour minimums and the delayed-arrival rebooking line
• Tropic Air — Cruise Ship Passengers — the five-minute taxi to Municipal and the two-hour window before the tender time
• JETS Shuttle Belize — BZE to Belize City private shuttle — “approximately 21 minutes” and “15 km / 9 miles”
• Untame Belize — shuttles — the shuttle that stops at both airports and the water taxi docks
• ambergriscaye.com — “Which is cheaper for getting to San Pedro” — secondary and undated: the BZ$50 taxi each way and the 30-minute ride
• tacogirl.com — “Cost of Flying Direct From BZE Airport Versus Cab to TZA Airport” — secondary: the same wording, last modified 20 November 2021, and “all prices are in Belize Dollars”
• The San Pedro Sun — Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport inaugurated, 11 November 2016 — the inauguration date, the “$17 million investment”, the runway and taxiway dimensions and the night lighting

Last verified: 24 September 2026. Domestic fares change by the day and by the seat; every fare above carries the date it was read and the date it was for.

Written by Estuardo Enriquez. This site is independent, carries no affiliate relationship with any airline, airport or transfer company named here, and is not connected to any previous owner of this domain.