Peruvian Aviation, Tourism, and Trade Guilds Urge Government to Postpone Lima Airport Transfer Fee
Aviation and tourism guilds, including IATA and ALTA, have asked Peru's President to postpone the collection of the TUUA transfer fee in Lima.
/https://aviacionlinecdn.eleco.com.ar/media/2025/02/nuevo_aeropuerto_jorge_chavez_de_lima.jpg)
Peru's leading guilds representing the air transport, tourism, and foreign trade sectors have issued an urgent appeal to the national government. They are calling for immediate measures to postpone the imminent collection of the Unified Airport Use Fee (TUUA) for transfers targeting international connecting passengers.
The implementation of this fee at Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) is scheduled to begin this Monday, October 27, under the management of the concessionaire Lima Airport Partners (LAP).
In a public statement addressed to the President of the Republic, José Jerí Oré, and the Prime Minister, Ernesto Álvarez Miranda, the signatory institutions emphasized that executive intervention is crucial. They request that the State "exercises its role as a guarantor of the balance between public interest and the airport concession conditions".
The request, shared on October 24 by entities such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warns that the matter "is not an exclusively technical or regulatory issue". They stress it is a decision that "directly affects passengers, the attraction of national tourism, international trade, and the strategic positioning of Peru in Latin America".
A Call for Urgent Multisectoral Evaluation
The united front of guilds, which includes IATA, ALTA (Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association), AETAI (Peru's international carrier association), CANATUR (National Chamber of Tourism), and COMEXPERU (Foreign Trade Society) , urges the government to evaluate "with urgency and in a multisectoral manner, the set of economic, operational, and reputational implications this measure will have if applied on the announced date".
As an immediate action, they propose agreeing to postpone the fee collection. The goal is to pause the implementation "until an informed, viable, and consensual decision is adopted; within a framework of respect for the fulfillment of the concession contract".
The TUUA Conflict
The implementation of this international transfer TUUA (provisionally set at USD 12.67) is the focal point of a weeks-long conflict. Airlines argue the new charge undermines the competitiveness of the Lima hub, which currently handles 30% of its international passengers in connection. They note that rival hubs like Bogotá (BOG) and Panama-Tocumen (PTY) do not apply similar fees to transit passengers.
The controversy has already led to commercial fallout: LATAM announced the suspension of its Lima-Orlando route, and Sky Airline suspended its Lima-Cancún service, both citing increased operational costs from the new fee structure.
Conversely, Lima Airport Partners (LAP) maintains that the fee collection is stipulated in the concession contract (Addendum 6) since 2013 and was approved by the regulator Ositrán. LAP asserts the fee is necessary to recover part of the over USD 2 billion invested in the new airport infrastructure. The operator noted it has already granted two commercial postponements and warned that a third delay would place the company in non-compliance, potentially leading to arbitration against the Peruvian state.
Para comentar, debés estar registradoPor favor, iniciá sesión