Air Travel Peru
 

I would like to know more about how reliable (schedule wise) air travel is in Peru. We will fly from Lima to Cusco for a two day visit and then do the 4 day Inca Trek to Machu Picchu. We plan on leaving Cusco via air to Arequipa for a day. The next day utilizing the same tour company that we used for the Inca Trek, spend 2 days in the Colca Canyon (June 17th and 18th). The 18th we head for Puno and spend the 19th Lake Titicaca (Uros Island) and then catch a flight back to Lima on the 20th. Using LATM airplanes for my Peru travels and a 2:40am flight from Lima (via Air Canada) on the 21st back to Toronto - am I cutting it too close in case of flight problems? Are they common? Thanks for your responses.

In my limited experience, delays were common. Extremely common. Sorry for the cautionary news.

Some good news. LATAM appears on the top ten list of the most punctual air carriers in the world: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/m...019/index.html

I flew LATAM twice in August '17 -- one was on time no problem . . . the other from Cusco to Lima was delayed three hours.

That was nothing though . . . my AA flight from Lima to Miami was delayed 6.5 hours.

Given the applicable criteria:

WHAT IS THE CRITERIA?

To qualify for inclusion in the Punctuality League, the OAG schedules database must have flight status data for at least 80% of all scheduled flights operated by an airline or for an airport.

• OAG's definitions of on-time performance (OTP is flights that arrive or depart within 15 mintues of their scheduled arrival/departure times.
• Cancellations are alse included.
• Airports must have a minimum of 2.5m departing seats to be included in the report.
• The threshold for airlines is ranked among the Top 250 airlines by annual Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs). Airline OTP is for arrivals only.

We travel to most places by bus rather than plane but the handful of flights we have taken have been on time. We even got put on an earlier flight from Lima to Cusco when we arrived checked in ahead of time. But my experiences count for little, if your flight from Puno is cancelled or delayed It is conceivable that you could miss your Toronto flight.

If you are getting a morning flight from Puno then I would make sure that there are several LATAM flights after your planned flight so that, if you do get cancelled, they can put you on to a subsequent flights. I haven’t looked at the stats but flying out of a high altitude airport such as Cusco can be problem because the airport is prone to high winds at certain times of the year. Apparently it is nearly always the pm flights that have problems. LATAM are better able to cope as they have a more modern fleet and more flights than other airline.

I always make a point of staying the night before a long haul flight in the city of departure, just in case.

As an aside, accomodation on the Uros islands is very basic, i.e. no showers so I am not sure I would want go straight on to a long flight to Canada from there! In fact I see little point in staying on one of the floating island, It is a bit of a theme park and a day trip would be enough for most people. Maybe a night in Puno and a day boat ride to Uros and Taquile would be better?

>>I always make a point of staying the night before a long haul flight in the city of departure, just in case. <<

BIG ditto to that.

It is common for flights to be delayed, cancelled and consolidated when they are underbooked. I always considered only an hour late to be "on time."

You should also consider that Juliaca is a common place for protests, blocked roads etc, leading into the airport.

If you are booking your own internal flights, I'd return to Lima the day before the international flight, or at the minimum, take a morning flight back for an evening international departure.

If there are more flights from Arequipa, I might switch up your itinerary and do Puno first. It really can be done either way.

Works for me! :star:
FWIW, I just checked my notes -- 4 of 5 flights I took were delayed, but only one by more than an hour.