Future tourist often has many questions about how they will get around Peru, and for good reason. Let us inform you that the Peruvian territory is so large that if we overlay maps with the European countries the Andean country would occupy the current France, Germany, and half of Spain’s territories. In other words, the distance between Peruvian cities is large, and considering that Peru is cut like a cake by the Andes, would take much time to go by any highway or road that crosses them. Because one thing is for sure, the easiest, safety, and fast way to move inside Peru is by flight. For this reason, the experts of Machu Travel Peru want to give you some advice on Peruvian Airlines, what is the best, tickets information, and even deals that can be offered.
Complete information about Peruvian Airlines
- The 5 Peruvian airlines
- LATAM Peru
- Sky Airlines
- Viva Air
- JetSmart
- Star Peru
- Tourist overflights companies
- Peruvian airlines facts
- Peruvian deals flight
The 5 Peruvian airlines
When we refer to airlines in Peru, we mean airlines that operate in Peruvian territory, not necessarily those that have been created in Peru. The Andean country doesn’t have any flag airlines. That said, the Peruvian airlines are 5. Lan Peru is the main domestic airline, and gets to most Peruvian cities, but is the most expensive, too. Those cheaper or also called low-cost are Sky Airlines, Viva Air, and JetSmart. Conversely, Star Peru only flies to central and northern Peru. Besides these, Wayra is the most popular charter airline that offers private flights to the center and northern cities.
LATAM Peru
LATAM Peru is a part of the LATAM Chile airline group. This airline is the oldest among the current ones in Peru and has the bulk of the domestic market, carrying normally around 63% of foreign and national passengers per year between Andean country cities. For all these reasons, LATAM Peru is considered the main airline of Peru. Also, the airline flies to all Peruvian destinations that have airports and also have connections to all of South America and the United States, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominic Republic, Spain, and even Sydney, Australia.
A ticket on LATAM Peru will be more expensive than some other airlines but has fewer delays and rarely their flights are canceled. If you are a foreign person and buy your ticket on the LATAM Airlines website, be careful with the little letters, it is known that they charge hidden commissions that will only be reflected in the final payment of the air ticket.
The only disadvantage is that LATAM Peru and all Peruvian airline companies located on this list don’t have interregional flights. So, for example, if you want to move from Arequipa to Puno (South cities), you’ll have to make a stopover in Lima (a north city). Therefore, you’ll have to plan things to do in long flights if you choose a flight with LATAM or any Peruvian airline.
- www.latam.com
- Jose Pardo Avenue 513, Miraflores, Lima
- Phone: +51 1 213-8200
- Direct flights from Lima to Arequipa, Cajamarca, Chiclayo, Cusco, Iquitos, Juliaca, Lima, Piura, Pucallpa, Puerto Maldonado, Tacna, Tarapoto, Trujillo, and Tumbes. Also, it offers interregional domestic flights from Cusco – Puerto Maldonado, Cusco – Arequipa, and Cusco – Juliaca
Sky Airlines
This is a Chilean company with a filial in Peru. It operates the second-largest number of flight frequencies, after LATAM. The air company gets to similar Peruvian destinies to LATAM. Without mentioning that offers international direct flights to Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominic Republic.
An important note: Sky Airlines is a low-cost airline. What is its meaning? Well, the base price includes the same service of transportation, an indeterminate seat on the airplane, and the right to carry a little bag of your personal things. If you want to choose the location of your seat on the plane, take bigger luggage in storage, or buy food on board, you will have to pay an additional for each one of these services, increasing your ticket flying cost.
Even so, this is a cheap Peruvian airline with good service. Therefore, if you want to move inside Peru with a good quality-price balance, Sky Airlines can be your best option.
- www.skyairline.com
- Jose Pardo Avenue 380, Miraflores, Lima
- Phone: +51 1 243-7998
- Direct flights from Lima to Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cusco, Iquitos, Juliaca, Pucallpa, Puerto Maldonado, Piura, Tumbes, Tarapoto, and Trujillo. Also, it offers interregional domestic flights from Cusco – Puerto Maldonado, Cusco – Arequipa, and Cusco – Juliaca
Viva Air
Among airlines in the Andean country, Viva Air has its origin in Europe. The Irelandia Aviation is the world’s leading developer of low-cost airlines with a base in Dublin, Ireland. The investment fund is the owner of 6 low-cost airlines in the world, including Ryanair in Europe, Tiger Airways in Australia and Singapore, Allegiant in the United States, Viva Aerobus in Mexico, Viva Air Colombia, and Viva Air Peru.
As a low-cost airline, and having a similar condition of purchasing flight tickets to Sky Airlines, the services of choosing seats, the possibility of carrying bigger luggage, and food onboard inter alia, have to be paid apart from the base ticket cost. The only difference with Sky Airlines is that it only offers the domestic flight Lima – Cusco, round trip. In other words, Viva Air doesn’t offer other domestic flights. Otherwise, it offers direct International flights to Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, The Dominic Republic, and the United States. The cost of tickets is similar to Sky Airlines and less than LATAM Peru.
- www.vivaair.com
- Camino Real Avenue 456, Torre Real San Isidro, Lima
- Phone: +51 1 705-0107
- Direct flight from Lima to Cusco, round trip
JetSmart
JetSmart is the new low-cost airline that came to Peru in 2022 from Chile and in turn from the United States. And, at the moment, it has the most successful entry into the Peruvian market of an airline in the history of the Andean country, establishing the lowest ticket cost. The airline of American investment fund has partners around the world, like Wizz Air (Europe), Volaris (Mexico), Frontier Airlines (United States) y Cebu Pacific (Asia).
Among these airlines in Peru, JetSmart is the cheapest airline, with a good balance in relation to quality-price, competitive rates, and good quality of service. Therefore, JetSmart is the best way to travel in Peru and highly recommendable if you want to make tourism around Peru this 2023.
- www.jetsmart.com
- Camino Real Avenue 493, San Isidro, Lima
- Phone: +51 1 311-0005
- Nowadays, its flights depart from Lima, round trip, to Iquitos, Tarapoto, Talara, Piura, Cajamarca, Trujillo, Cusco, Juliaca, and Arequipa. Also, JetSmart offers direct interregional flights like Cusco – Arequipa. Also, it offers international direct flights to Chile and Argentina from Lima
Star Peru
Another Peruvian airline is Star Peru. Being one of the smaller airlines, its routes are limited. In recent years, it has lost some of its market shares due to delays and flight cancelations. Before, they flew to Cusco and the entire Peruvian South, but after the pandemic they no longer do. The airline has no international flights and has some of the cheapest flights in the Peruvian flight market to the cities mentioned.
If we had to make a ranking of airlines in Peru, Star Peru could be situated in first place regarding lateness and cancellation of services, despite offering low costs on some of its routes, take it into consideration.
- https://www.starperu.com
- Jose Pardo Avenue 495, Miraflores, Lima
- Phone: +51 1 705-9090
- The airline flies from Lima to Cajamarca, Chiclayo, Huanuco, Iquitos, Pucallpa, and Tarapoto.Round Trip
Tourist overflight companies
Besides these commercial airlines in Peru described before, Peru has tourist overflight companies that operate inside cities without leaving these, many times overflowing tourist attractions or archeological zones. This is the case for the following companies.
- Aero Nazca: It is the most popular in its category and overflight the Nazca Lines. The small planes depart and return from Maria Reiche Neumann Aerodrome, every day with tourists who want to be amazed by the beauty and mystery of these lines.
- Aero Condor: Not long ago, this airline operated Peruvian domestic flights, however, the Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communications withdrew its authorization for finding its large-bodied aircraft outdated. Of this fact, the company began to operate tourist overflights in Ica (Nazca lines, the Dunes, the Calendar, the Palpa Lines, Independence Bay, Punta Paracas, and San Juan de Marcona). Arequipa (Volcanes valley, Colca valley, and Chivay), Titicaca Lake in Puno, Chan-Chan in La Libertad region and Sipán, Huaca Rajada and Poémape in Lambayeque.
- Aero Diana: This is another air company that overflights the Nazca lines, join Aero Nazca and Aero Condor. Although Aero Nazca has a higher flight frequency, according to opinions on TripAdvisor Aero Diana has the best quality of service, modern float, and qualified personnel. Definitely, the best option to appreciate the Nazca lines.
- Aero Ica: Aero Ica is the most ancient overflight airline in the Nazca region. The company has the Marie Reiche aerodrome and Las Dunas – Ica airport, as its headquarters. Nowadays, the airline still operates the Nazca lines overflight route.
Peruvian airlines facts
1. Disappeared airlines in Peru
Unfortunately, tourism in Peru was one of the most affected industries around the world due to the pandemic, (poor flow of passengers and travel due to the quarantines decreed worldwide) and the air sector was not immune to this affectation. The result? After 2021, the “Peruvian Airlines” national company stopped operating and disappeared from the map of domestic airlines. It was one of the few companies created in Peruvian territory.
Of course, this was not the only one, LCP Peru (another created in Peru territory) company followed in its footsteps. Also, Avianca international airlines (of Colombian capitals) had to return to Colombia leaving the domestic flight services. But, despite this panorama, other airlines entered the domestic Peruvian market with more competitive prices and high-quality levels (low-cost airlines), therefore, there is a good forecast for the future of the sector.
2. Is it expensive to travel through Peru?
Let’s start by saying that Peru hasn’t a flag airline company, (the last one was Aeroperu, which disappeared in 1999). In this way, many air companies are private and foreign, and, despite the existence of hard competition in the market, the costs of a flight ticket are usually not cheap. Even a domestic Peruvian flight can be more expensive than European domestic flights. But why? The answer can have its origin in the high cost of fuel in the Andean country, the devaluation of the local currency (Soles) against the American Dollar, and the large distance between Peruvian cities. Of course, if you are a foreign visitant, with dollars in your pockets, you may not feel much of the cost difference, but rest assured that a local Peruvian will feel the blow.
Usually, Peruvian airlines have a domestic flight ticket that costs around $160.00 round trip, having Lima airport as starting point. Without considering the deals and period of discounts.
3. Not all Peruvian cities receive flights
However, despite the high costs of flight tickets, Air travel is a quick and most time-efficient way of moving around the country. Over the last few years, many new different airlines begin to offer regular services to many of the major Peruvian cities, but not to all.
For example, if you want to visit Titicaca Lake and know the majestic pre-Inca culture of Tiahuanaco, you would have to arrive in Puno. But unfortunately, Altiplano city doesn’t have an airport. So, What could you do? Well, you would have to land, first, in Juliaca city (which does have an airport), and after go by bus, or car heading to Puno, located 01 hour and a half from it.
In the same way in the case of Nazca Lines, you would have to take a flight to a nearby city such as Ica, Once arrived, you would have to a bus or car to get, finally, to Nazca Lines.
These are only two examples.
4. No direct flights between cities
In Peru, there are no direct domestic flights between cities without making a stopover in Lima first, in all cases. For example, If you want to go from Cusco (Peru’s south), after an unforgettable Machu Picchu experience, to Piura (north of Peru) to enjoy its beaches, you would have to buy two flight tickets, one flight from Cusco to Lima, and another one from Lima to Piura, because there is not a direct flight between these two points.
But, this same fact occurs between cities in the same geographical area, for example, if you want to go from the Arequipa (Colca canyon), a southwest Peruvian city to Puno (Titicaca lake), a southeast city, you will have to take 1 flight but with scale in Lima (north of these two cities). Please, take note of this fact.
Peruvian deals flight
Here you’ll have tips for booking cheap flights. Usually, the low-cost airlines in Peru make offer cheap tickets at the month’s end. However, big companies like LATAM reduce their prices during national campaigns like other e-commerce companies, for example in CyberWow (the last days of April), and Cyber Monday (The last Monday of November) you will find deals on ticket flights. On the other hand, if you want to buy a flight ticket during a normal period, we suggest you choose your arrival and landing days between Tuesday to Thursday because these are weekdays and not many people travel in. In opposite, from Friday to Sunday, people often travel and the ticket cost for these days will be expensive.
“TRAVEL OPENS YOUR HEART, BROADENS YOUR MIND, AND FILLS YOUR LIFE WITH STORIES TO TELL”
We hope we have helped you with your airline choices if you are planning a trip to Peru. As you can see, there are a variety of airlines to choose from, depending on your budget and your destination. Book your tour to Peru today a memory to last a lifetime. In this way, you have no excuses for not reaching your Peruvian destination and get unforgettable remembers. And remember that the experts of Machu Travel Peru are ready to assist you with any Peruvian destination that you want to visit.
Peru has so much to offer, it can be hard to know where to start. With many years of experience in the tourism sector, Machu Travel Peru is happy to help with anything regarding your trip to Machu Picchu and any tours around it. Make your Machu Picchu experience an unforgettable one!
