Taca Peru's hopes of flying to Miami as part of a newly unveiled international expansion appear in doubt as Peruvian authorities mount a last-ditch effort to forestall the US Federal Aviation Administration downgrading the country's safety rating to Category 2.
Aero Continente has already suspended its wet-lease service to Florida in protest at a blocked application by the USA for a dry-lease service.
The Grupo Taca-backed Peruvian carrier wants to fly from Lima to Miami under a two-stage plan to launch international operations from 18 July. This depends on a report due to be submitted on 10 July which will determine if the USA will uphold Peru's current Category 1 status under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment programme.
Taca Peru chairman Daniel Ratti "expects the system to be resolved" in time for the November start of its Miami service. In the event that Peru is put into Category 2, as many are expecting, Ratti says the carrier will wet lease an Airbus A319 from Grupo Taca partner Lacsa for the route. Category 2 freezes existing services to the USA and prevents any new services, unless using aircraft wet leased from US operators or countries with a Category 1 status.
Aero Continente recently discontinued a similar service to Miami using a Boeing 757 wet leased from Air 2000 because of US refusal to approve the use of a Boeing 767-200 dry-leased from International Lease Finance. The refusal was in spite of Peru's current category 1 status and a US-Peru open skies agreement.
LanPeru also wants to replace a wet-leased LanChile 767 on the Lima-Miami route with its own flightcrews.
"Aero Continente does not believe that this situation is an international safety compliance issue," states the carrier's lawyer Lawrence Wasko in a letter to the US Department of Transportation, pointing to a favourable audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. "A Peruvian carrier limited to a wet-lease service cannot compete economically in the same market with an American carrier operating its own aircraft," he adds.
Taca Peru plans to initially fly to Santiago, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Panama, Quito, Sao Paulo, San Jose and Mexico using four new A319s leased from Taca. It will add two more jets in November, introducing Bogota, La Paz and Santa Cruz in Bolivia services. It currently operates two Boeing 737-200s domestically from Lima to Cusco and Iquitos.
The FAA has just downgraded El Salvador to Category 2, forcing Taca to consider moving its operating certificate to Costa Rica (Flight International, 20-26 June).
Source: Flight International
