Operational turbulence is once again rippling through Latin American skies, with LATAM Airlines Peru at the center of a fresh wave of disruptions. On the latest day of irregular operations, the carrier registered nine flight cancellations and 48 delays across routes touching Peru, Cuba and Mexico, with passengers in hubs such as Lima, Havana and Cancun facing significant schedule changes and uncertainty. The issues land at a delicate moment for LATAM Peru, which is already navigating a broader restructuring of its route network from Lima and an increasingly contested cost environment at its primary hub.
A Day of Disruptions Across Peru, Cuba and Mexico
The latest operational snapshot for LATAM Peru shows a concentrated flare-up of irregularities, with nine cancellations and 48 delayed flights recorded in a single day across its regional network. While this scale of disruption may be modest compared with continent-wide meltdowns, it is significant for a carrier that promotes Lima as a reliable connection point between South America, the Caribbean and North America.
According to regional flight tracking data and passenger reports, knock-on effects were felt on services linking Lima with Havana and Cancun, as well as on domestic and regional connections feeding into those international departures. In Lima, some travelers found departure boards shifting repeatedly through the day, with estimated take-off times pushed back in small increments that stretched into hours. In Havana and Cancun, the pattern was similar, with extra time spent in gate areas and, for some passengers, extended waits at immigration and baggage claim as arrival times slid into the night.
Key factors behind the delays and cancellations include tight aircraft utilization, congestion in peak operating banks at Jorge Chávez International Airport, and the lingering fragility of regional airline staffing and maintenance chains after years of volatility. When a single aircraft or crew is taken out of rotation for technical or operational reasons, the result can be a cascade of disruptions across multiple routes, precisely what many travelers experienced on this latest difficult travel day.
Lima’s Hub Under Pressure
Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport has long been presented by LATAM as one of its strategic connection hubs, offering links between the Southern Cone, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States. However, the Peruvian capital’s hub status is now under notable strain. A combination of infrastructure limits, rising fees and highly price-sensitive demand is reducing the margin for error and making each day of irregular operations more painful for both airline and passengers.
A central source of pressure is the implementation of the Tarifa Unificada de Uso de Aeropuerto (TUUA) de transferencia, a new transfer airport charge that affects passengers connecting through Lima. Airlines, including LATAM Peru, argue that the added cost undermines the competitiveness of Lima versus rival hubs in the region, especially for routes where a large majority of travelers are connecting rather than beginning or ending their journeys in Peru.
This is particularly relevant to routes such as Lima–Havana, where LATAM itself has indicated that roughly seven out of ten passengers are international transfer travelers. With margins already thin, the introduction of an additional per-passenger fee reduces the economic viability of such services. When operational disruptions occur on top of this, the financial hit of cancellations and reaccommodation grows heavier, further complicating route planning decisions.
Lima–Havana and Lima–Cancún: Routes in the Spotlight
The travel conundrum currently facing LATAM Peru is starkest on its links between Lima and key leisure destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico. In October 2025, LATAM Airlines Peru announced that its Lima–Havana route, which had transported around 110,000 passengers over nearly two years of operation, would be cancelled as of March 11, 2026, citing the impact of the new transfer fee and poor route profitability. In parallel, Lima–Orlando and several other international services have also been earmarked for discontinuation toward the end of the first quarter of 2026.
Industry analyses published toward the end of 2025 and early 2026 highlight that LATAM Peru intends to discontinue multiple routes from Lima in the northern summer 2026 season, including not only Havana and Orlando but also cities such as Curacao, Florianopolis and Tucuman. These cuts are framed as a direct consequence of higher costs for connecting traffic via Lima, as well as the need to concentrate aircraft on routes with stronger financial performance.
Cancun, another high-profile leisure market for South American travelers, has also seen renewed scrutiny of its connectivity from Peru. While LATAM has so far opted to sustain Lima–Cancun operations, at least one competing carrier has already withdrawn the route, explicitly blaming the additional cost burden on passengers connecting in Lima. The result is a more fragile network on which any day of cancellations and delays is felt more acutely by travelers counting on a limited set of nonstop options to Caribbean and Mexican beach destinations.
Passengers Caught Between Policy and Operations
For passengers caught up in the latest sequence of nine cancellations and dozens of delays, the immediate challenge is practical: getting to their destination with as little disruption as possible. Travelers in Lima reported queueing at rebooking counters to secure seats on later departures to Havana, Cancun and other onward points, while those in Cuba and Mexico faced anxious waits for update announcements over airport public address systems.
Behind those personal stories lies a broader structural issue: travelers are bearing the brunt of both short-term operational missteps and long-term policy shifts. When an airport’s fee structure changes in a way that weakens the economics of connecting traffic, airlines naturally respond by pruning marginal routes or reducing frequencies. In turn, any operational hiccup on the remaining flights, such as a technical delay or crew scheduling issue, can leave passengers with far fewer alternative options on the same day or even the same week.
The introduction and phasing-in of the TUUA transfer charge has drawn criticism from airline industry bodies and regional tourism stakeholders, who warn that higher costs will push price-sensitive travelers toward other hubs and reduce the appeal of itineraries involving Lima connections. For passengers, that translates into more complex routings, potential overnights on what used to be simple one-stop journeys, and a heightened risk that a single disruption could derail a tightly planned vacation or business trip.
How LATAM Peru Is Responding
LATAM Peru has sought to frame its network adjustments and disruption management policies as part of a broader effort to preserve overall connectivity while maintaining economic sustainability. In public statements and press briefings over recent months, the airline has emphasized its commitment to offering passengers options when routes are cancelled or schedules are disrupted, including date changes, rerouting over alternate hubs and, where appropriate, refunds.
For the Lima–Havana route, the airline has indicated that passengers with tickets dated on or after March 11, 2026, will be able to request full refunds or modify their itineraries at no additional cost. For routes such as Lima–Orlando, where seasonal suspensions are in play around late 2025 and early 2026, affected travelers have been offered the choice of retiming flights, rebooking via alternative gateways, or redirecting their travel to other destinations in the LATAM network.
On disruption days like the latest one with nine cancellations and dozens of delays, LATAM’s standard playbook includes sending proactive notifications through digital channels, offering no-cost date or time changes within a defined window, and, in certain jurisdictions, providing meal vouchers or accommodation when passengers are stranded overnight. However, the effectiveness of these measures depends heavily on communication speed, airport staffing levels and the availability of alternative flights, all of which can be stretched thin during peak holiday periods or when multiple airlines are simultaneously affected.
What Travelers in Lima, Havana and Cancun Should Expect
For travelers planning journeys in and out of Lima, Havana or Cancun over the coming months, the practical implications of LATAM Peru’s current travel conundrum are twofold: short-term disruption risk and longer-term schedule reshaping. In the short term, operational irregularities remain possible as the airline recalibrates its network and as regional infrastructure and regulatory frameworks continue to evolve.
Passengers connecting through Lima, especially those heading to Caribbean or Mexican beach destinations, should be prepared for the possibility of schedule changes and longer layovers, and build extra buffer time into tight itineraries. Those traveling on routes slated for discontinuation after March 2026 need to pay close attention to airline communications about final operating dates, reaccommodation plans and refund options, and should verify that their contact details are up to date in reservation profiles.
In Havana and Cancun, the picture is mixed. While connectivity from Peru and the wider South American region remains available, the pool of nonstop options is likely to shrink, particularly from secondary markets. Travelers may find themselves increasingly routed via larger hubs such as São Paulo, Bogotá or Panama City when flying to and from Peru, especially once the current wave of route cancellations becomes effective in late March 2026.
Reading the Wider Regional Signals
The turbulence surrounding LATAM Peru’s operations is emblematic of broader trends affecting air travel in Latin America. Across the region, airlines are contending with higher operating costs, infrastructure bottlenecks, and passenger bases that are extremely sensitive to even small fare increases. In this environment, the addition of a new airport charge in a key hub like Lima can tip the scales against routes that might previously have been marginally profitable but strategically valuable.
Over the course of 2025, external analyses of flight disruption patterns across South America highlighted multiple days when dozens of flights were cancelled and hundreds delayed, with LATAM often among the affected carriers. While not all of these disruptions were linked directly to cost issues or fee changes, they underscored the fragility of regional operations and the difficulty of maintaining punctuality when carriers are running tight schedules to maximize aircraft utilization.
For tourism authorities in Peru, Cuba and Mexico, the stakes are high. Reliable air connectivity is critical to sustaining visitor flows, especially from long-haul source markets that depend on efficient one-stop connections. As airlines like LATAM Peru trim their route maps and focus on higher-yield or more resilient markets, destinations that rely heavily on connecting traffic through hubs such as Lima may need to explore new partnerships or incentives to secure sufficient seat capacity.
Looking Ahead: Balancing Viability and Connectivity
The immediate headline may be a day marked by nine cancellations and 48 delays for LATAM Peru, but the underlying story is about how airlines, airports and regulators in the region will strike a balance between financial viability and network connectivity in the years ahead. For LATAM Peru, the path forward appears to involve consolidating its Lima hub around the strongest-performing routes, exiting markets made unprofitable by new charges, and investing in customer communication and disruption management to preserve brand trust.
For travelers, the new reality calls for greater vigilance and flexibility. Monitoring flight status closely in the days leading up to departure, allowing generous connection times, and considering travel insurance that covers missed connections and extended delays are increasingly prudent steps for anyone flying through Lima toward Havana, Cancun or other regional leisure destinations. Alternative routings via competing hubs may also become more common, as both airlines and passengers react to the evolving economics of connection charges.
Ultimately, the test for Lima as a hub and for LATAM Peru as its principal tenant will be whether they can adapt quickly enough to preserve essential connectivity while maintaining competitive fares. The current bout of cancellations and delays is a reminder that in a region where price and reliability are both paramount, even relatively small policy shifts or operational disruptions can reverberate widely across the travel landscape, reshaping how and where Latin Americans and international visitors choose to fly.