Peru flight delays?
 

In March we will arrive to Lima and spend two nights there. Then, over a two week period we plan to travel a route to Arequipa / Colca Canyon – Puno / Titicaca – Cusco / S.V. / M.P. – return to Lima, or; in the reverse order.

On our return to Lima, from Cusco (or Arequipa) we wish to arrive the same day as our late-night flight back to USA.

I have often read of weather related delays on the Cusco-Lima route. My question then: is there less of a chance of a weather delay if we reverse the above itinerary and make that last flight leg Arequipa-Lima?

We can’t take a chance of missing our flight home and would rather not return to Lima a day earlier as we will already have spent two nights there earlier.

This, no doubt, is a rather obscure question because the weather will vary form one season to another but my guess is that the climate and weather might be somewhat different in Arequipa that it is in Cusco in the month of March.

It's a good question. You stand a slightly better chance of running into flight delays in Cusco than at other airports in Peru. Most flights still run on time, but winds in Cusco can occasionally play havoc with flight schedules. I'm in Peru now and noticed at Cusco's airport that they've posted signs advising passengers of this possibility. I don't think I've ever seen that at any other airport. You always just know that weather delays are possible. These people make that clear. :)

No guuarantees of anything, of course, but if you have the option of putting Cusco into the middle of your schedule, and Arequipa at the end, that sounds like a good idea, just to be on the safe side.

Thanks Jeff

Also, I have read of delay due to fog at Cusco. It could be that somewhat fewer people fly from Arequipa than from Cusco and therefor delay from Cusco is more widely reported.

We were told that flights from Cusco to Lima often get delayed due to weather. On the day of our flight from Cusco to Lima all am flights to Lima were cancelled due to fog in Lima. As our flight was later in the am, we were only delayed a short time. But there were many in the airport who had hours delays. This was in April.

I think you're right, yestravel, that if it's a fog delay, it's going to be on the Lima end. The signs at the Cusco airport specifically mention the wind, and they kind of say, not in these exact words, you have to expect this at an airport at 3,400 meters (over 11,000 feet). That's kind of the message they're sending. :)

OK, I didn't think of the weather problem being on the Lima end of the flight. I wonder if the best strategy is to plan an early flight and then hope to get on the next available, or schedule a mid-day flight because if the early one is canceled those passengers would go to the bottom of the list if the next flight is full. Very interesting.:)

Thanks, Rod

Honest. I wouldn't worry about this too much. Delays and cancellations happen, but in all my years of flying in and out of and around Peru, I've had a problem only once. That was last week flying from Lima to Cusco. The flight was cancelled for maintenance reasons. Nothing to do with weather. LAN got all the passengers put on other flights within the hour. It worked out. The Lima-Cusco and Lima-Arequipa routes have a lot of flights.

I think your strategy of putting Arequipa at the end of your trip is a good one.

We were flying from Juliaca to Lima at the end of our trip a couple weeks ago, and I was worried about the same thing. Our Juliaca flight was 4:45 or something like that, and our Lima flight (home) left late that night - around 10 or 11. I was nervous about a possible weather problem, but it didn't happen - although the weather wasn't the greatest when we left Juliaca and the flight was among the most turbulent I'd ever been on (was so glad to get off!).
I agree with the others that Arequipa might be a better option, but I, too, think you shouldn't worry too much about it. Flights do get delayed on occasion - and usually airlines are accommodating when such things happen. Good luck!

This thread points out the one and only negative thing I can think to say about travel to Peru: Domestic air travel doesn't always connect well with international flights in and out of Lima.

So many of the international flights arrive very late at night, so you are faced with spending the night in Lima. I always find it wasteful to arrive at an airport close to midnight, knowing I have to be back there for a 6 a.m. flight. Maybe I'm just too cheap and don't want to spend the money for a hotel for just a few hours. :)) I do like the AA flight that gets into Lima at about 4:30 a.m., because you can then hop on one of the early-morning flights to anywhere in the country.

Same problem coming back: Many of the international flights out leave during the overnight hours, but your domestic flight might have to get you to Lima hours before.

But that's the only bad thing I can say about traveling to Peru. The rest will be an amazing trip, tatersalad. :)