In its latest effort to stabilise domestic aviation, the Peruvian Government is looking to foreign airlines. Its transport ministry has adopted a rule, now awaiting congressional approval, that would grant foreign airlines cabotage in zones Lima declares a priority for tourism or international commerce. This proposal has sparked an uproar.
Domestic aviation in Peru has been chaotic for at least a decade - 20 airlines have failed in this period. Lima leaned on AeroPeru last year to boost domestic service and Peru's air force started adding commercial flights. At Lima's behest, American Airlines launched Lima-Cuzco earlier this year on the end of its New York route. The present proposal emerged after American dropped its Cuzco route.
Predictably, tourist officials support cabotage. Pablo de La Flor, former vice minister of tourism and international marketing, told a commission created to study the issue that Peru's tourism should not rely solely on AeroPeru and Aero- Continente. Third World countries need wide open commercial aviation to develop their tourism, according to De La Flor. "This is a reality in countries like Peru," he says.
But some groups, including Lima's bar association, find the proposal flawed by its failure to require reciprocity. "No other country in the world allows foreign airlines to cover their domestic territory," points out one critic.
AeroContinente and Aero- Peru have stayed silent on the proposal, probably because it has been drafted by the same officials who regulate them. But AeroPeru's pilots' association has been less reticent. Jorge Cafiero, association president, says the law will only attract airlines interested in tourist destinations with high loads. They will skim the market, Cafiero claims, erode the slim yield now earned by Peru's two carriers, and leave them to serve the low load/low yield destinations. The end result, he fears, will be the collapse of AeroPeru and AeroContinente.
Source: Airline Business