Cusco airport reopened and scheduled flights are operating again

After almost four days, Cusco’s Alejandro Velasco Astete Airport has resumed regular flights. Operations had been suspended on Monday night because of an attempt by a mob of demonstrators to enter its facilities in the context of the serious political crisis that Peru is going through after the removal of Pedro Castillo as president.

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Manifestantes lograron ingresar al aeropuerto Alejandro Velasco Astete de Cusco y generaron incendios. Se registraron fuertes enfrentamientos y posteriormente la policía tomó el control #Cusco #protestas @Lima_ECpe pic.twitter.com/3r2uRNFM4L

— Sebastián Ramírez (@chinoperiodista) December 14, 2022

The first arrival was LATAM Airlines flight 2025 from Lima, which landed in Cusco at 14:10 local time (19:10 UTC). At the time of this publication, at 14:20 local time there were three other flights on standby or approaching Cusco airport: Viva’s VPE 605, LATAM’s LA2035 and JetSMART’s JZ7037, all from Lima. For the remainder of the day there are another 17 flights scheduled to arrive.

As for departures, the first scheduled flight is LATAM’s LA 2515 to Lima at 14:20, and will be followed by 19 other departures this Friday.

The closure of Cusco airport, the second busiest airport in Peru, had greater international repercussions since it is the gateway to the country’s main tourist attraction, Machu Picchu, which caused thousands of foreign tourists to be stranded just days before the Christmas Holidays.

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But four other airports have also been closed during the last week: Ayacucho, Juliaca, Arequipa and Andahuaylas.