I'm flying for ten hours from San Francisco for $400 to Lima, and all of the 1 hour flights I'm finding for Lima<->Cusco are in the neighborhood of $450 round trip. I found one flight that was $300 but that's still insanely high for a one hour flight.

What the hell is going on? Is it always that expensive to fly this short distance?

If you go on the Peru Version of the LAN website you will find cheaper fares. TACA is a Peruvian airline that has one flight per day at lower fares. It can be tricky to book these yourself from the US, I recommend going over to Tripadvisor Forums where there is ongoing discussion and advice on how to book these fares.

www.taca.com

usually cheap promo fares

some as cheap as $39 each way

Star Peru cheap fares also book with them

LAN rips people off who book on their international site

usually book the internal Peru site with a Lima agent

like www.peruforless.com

or wait till I get there buy cheaply within Peru.

And don't use apunake as previously recommended by some.

The lower fares are not available on the foreign LAN site. If you speak Spanish you can call the LAN call center in Lima, book the flight and pay with your credit card info on the phone.

In this case it will be considerably cheaper (just did it about 20 days ago). The round trip Lima-Cusco-Lima was US$ 187.00.

BTW, this is the telephone of the call center:

(51-1)2138200

I found the LAN fares on the website very expensive. I contacted a local travel agent (using recommendations from this forum) and it was less than half the cost. I received the electronic tickets by email.

Do you have the local agents number? I want to book Lima-Cuzco flight for September. I see on the LAN Peru version its $39 but need some peruvian form of money trasfer since mastercard/Visa credit cards cannot be used on the website. Please help

Are you sure you can't buy that ticket with a credit card?

They supposedly changed the website very recently and some have had success.

If you aren't signed up with the LANPASS system that might make the difference.

Question to JFCarli,
I just went on the website (with a Spanish-speaking friend by my side) and it said that I needed to be a Peru resident and had to show something called a DNI (ID of some sort). And if i didn't have this, I would be charged the price difference ($187 US). Did you have this issue when you booked your flight over the phone? (I will be calling from Canada).
Thanks!

Yes, things have changed in the time that this post started. LAN is now restricting BASE fares to Peruvian residents. You can still get their BASE PLUS fares. Or try Taca.

Lan is now being investigated by the Government of Peru

for instituting $178.50 per person per flight

"non-resident" surcharge as of 09/01/09

Currently only fly

www.taca.com

www.starperu.com

for best prices LIM CUZ

Qwovadis, my understanding is these other two airlines only have one or two flights per day to Cusco. How do they handle weather often delaying if not cancelling flights? Are you put on first available flight with seats regardless of airline (most likely LAN since they have so many more flights per day)?

LAN is obviously going to take care of their own customers first, when flights are cancelled due to weather. If you are on a short tight itinerary I would price all the options and decide if saving $50 or $100 is worth losing a day.

LAN is engaging in the time-honored practice known as "stick it to the foreigners." They have not taken kindly to people trying to get around their palm-greased monopoly in the market. Here's a bit more on the story:
http://luxurylatinamerica.com/blog/2...from-lan-peru/

In short, the main reason you can't find a direct flight to Cusco from anywhere is because the government officials are making lots of money routing you through Lima and onto LAN. Take Taca where you can, but otherwise you're at their mercy.

The current CUZ is not equipped to handle the biggest planes necessary for flights to and from North America. That is supposed to change in about three years when a new airport opens out in the Sacred Valley between Chinchero and Urubamba. It will have a bigger terminal and a longer runway. It will not have the funny approach through the mountains that the current airport requires, nor will it be subject to the high winds that kick up and can play havoc with flight schedules in the afternoon. The plan is to have some non-stop flights from North America without needing to connect in Lima.

The upside is that if you're basing yourself in the Sacred Valley, you'll already be there with the new airport. The downside is that if you wish to base yourself in Cusco, you'll have at least a 45-minute drive to get into the city. The current airport may be tiny, outdated and dreary, but it's very close to the city.

to littleg33,

My apologies for not answering before: Christmas, New year, etc... etc... made me not visit FODORS.

Anyhow, I am sorry to hear about that new demand, which in my case did not exist. Probably they are closing the loopholes that existed. I am sorry.

LAN is crazy expensive compared to Taca (1-2 flights/day) or Starperu (3 flights/day). Other than the fact that flying into high mountain airports (whether in Peru or Wyoming) will be acutely weather-dependent, any reason to believe the two cheaper airlines are unreliable?

I know this is an old post, but I'm looking for tickets from lima to peru, once I am in lima and starperu seems to be the cheapest at about $167 dollars a peron for roundtrip. It's better than the $300+ other options I'm seeing, but I'm wondering as the original post started almost two years ago if it's cheaper to call starperu directly instead of using their website?

I'm fluent in Spanish, so the language is not an issue. Any advice is appreciated.