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Peru has joined a growing group of Latin American countries adjusting how much connecting air passengers pay, introducing a new transit fee at Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport that industry groups say could reshape travel patterns across the region.
What Peru’s New Transit Fee Actually Is
Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications has approved a new airport use charge for passengers making international connections through Lima, applied via the TUUA, or Unified Airport Use Fee. The measure, implemented on 7 December 2025, adds roughly 12 dollars per international transfer passenger who remains airside while connecting at Jorge Chávez International Airport. The fee is collected through airlines and embedded in the ticket price for eligible itineraries, rather than charged separately at the airport counter.
Authorities argue that the additional charge will help finance infrastructure upgrades at Lima’s expanding hub, including the new terminal and airside improvements needed to handle rising long haul and regional traffic. Official communications emphasize that the fee is not a visa or immigration charge, but a usage toll for airport facilities, from jet bridges and security to boarding gates and transfer corridors used exclusively by connecting passengers.
Domestic connections within Peru are treated differently, at least for now. Current regulations maintain an exemption for passengers who arrive internationally and connect onward to a domestic destination under the same ticket, although that waiver is scheduled to expire at the end of 2025 unless renewed. Industry observers are watching closely, as the removal of the exemption would extend the cost increase to a large share of Peru’s internal air network.
For travelers, the change means that itineraries routing through Lima may appear slightly more expensive from one week to the next, even on the same airline and route. Because the fee is bundled into the fare breakdown presented by carriers and online travel agencies, passengers are unlikely to see a separate line labeled “Peru transit fee,” but the underlying costs will be reflected in final ticket prices.
How Peru’s Move Fits a Wider Latin American Trend
Peru’s decision does not come in isolation. Across Latin America, governments and airport operators have been quietly recalibrating what connecting and short stay visitors pay, both at airports and cruise ports. Mexico has repeatedly updated its airport use fee, known as TUA, which applies to almost all departing and connecting passengers, and has separately introduced an in transit fee for cruise ship guests that began at 5 dollars in mid 2025 and is set to rise gradually in coming years.
Elsewhere, Mexico’s non resident tourism charge, collected by airlines and sometimes sold as an add on during online check in, effectively applies even to many travelers who simply transit through the country on separate tickets. Confusion over how and when it is charged has prompted complaints from passengers who discover the fee only at the airport. The common thread is that authorities are increasingly looking to short stay and connecting visitors as a stable source of revenue to fund infrastructure and balance budgets.
In the Southern Cone, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and, more recently, Bolivia have all updated port and navigation tolls, passenger levies or airport charges that affect how much it costs to move people and goods across borders. While the mechanisms differ, the direction is similar: the region is shifting more of the burden from airlines and operators to individual travelers, including those who never leave the airport transit zone.
Industry bodies such as the International Air Transport Association have warned that Peru’s move could erode Lima’s competitiveness as a hub, just as Mexico City and regional rivals adjust their own fee structures. Carriers may respond over time by tweaking schedules, pushing more connections through alternative hubs that offer lower airport charges or more favorable bilateral agreements.
Who Will Pay More and Which Trips Are Affected
The main group affected in Peru is international passengers flying through Lima on a single through itinerary, such as a traveler from Los Angeles to Cusco via Lima or from Madrid to Santiago de Chile with a Lima connection. For these itineraries, the international transfer portion of the TUUA is now loaded into the ticket whenever the stop in Lima exceeds the minimum connection time and remains within the transit area.
Travelers on separate tickets, or those who must collect bags and recheck with another airline, can face a more complex situation. Because they technically exit and re enter the secure area, they may trigger multiple airport charges and, depending on nationality and route, immigration related fees. This risk is particularly significant for passengers stitching together low cost segments or mixing full service and budget carriers without a formal interline agreement.
Domestic passengers within Peru are, for the moment, shielded from the new transit charge when they connect under a single reservation from an international arrival to a domestic destination. However, that protection is time limited. Unless authorities extend the current exemption, domestic connectors could see higher ticket prices from 1 January 2026 as the domestic transfer fee kicks in. That would particularly affect popular routes funnelling tourists through Lima to Cusco, Arequipa and northern beach destinations.
Not every traveler will notice the increase in isolation, since the new fee typically represents a single digit percentage of the total fare, especially on long haul routes. Budget conscious passengers, though, will feel it most acutely when comparing options across competing hubs, particularly if a rival airport in the region does not yet charge a comparable transfer toll.
What Travelers Should Do Now When Booking Through Lima
For passengers planning itineraries that route through Lima in late 2025 and 2026, the most important step is to factor the new charge into overall cost comparisons. Because the fee is embedded in published airfares, comparison tools and airline websites will automatically display higher prices for affected connections, but will not necessarily flag that the difference is driven by a new airport levy rather than underlying demand or fuel costs.
Travelers should pay close attention to whether they are booked on a single ticket or on separate reservations. A single through ticket typically ensures that only one set of airport charges is applied per direction, even if multiple segments are involved. Separate tickets, by contrast, may expose passengers to duplicated fees and, in the worst cases, denied boarding if a required transit visa or charge for an intermediate country has not been paid in advance.
Checking fare rules and tax breakdowns before confirming payment can help. Many booking engines allow users to expand a price detail panel that lists specific taxes and airport charges by code. While the technical abbreviations may not always be intuitive, seeing multiple entries for airport usage or tourism charges on the same direction of travel is a sign that the itinerary passes through several fee collecting jurisdictions.
Travelers with flexibility may find that routing through alternative hubs such as Bogotá, Panama City or Santiago yields lower total ancillary charges on some dates, even if the base fare appears similar. However, those alternatives can introduce longer itineraries or additional stops, so the savings must be weighed against added travel time and potential disruption.
Regional Implications for Airfares and Hub Competition
The introduction of a specific transit fee at Lima arrives at a moment when Latin America’s air network is still rebuilding after the pandemic and several carriers have restructured or disappeared. Airlines are particularly sensitive to marginal changes in cost at key hubs, since those small increases can tip connecting traffic toward competing airports that offer lower fees or more favorable incentives.
Analysts note that Peru had positioned Lima as a competitive bridge between North and South America and between Europe and the Andean region, benefiting from geographic location and relatively straightforward connections. By directly increasing the cost of international transfers, the government risks dulling that edge just as Mexico, Colombia and Brazil are also renegotiating airport tariffs and capital investment plans.
In the short term, most of the added cost is expected to be passed on to consumers rather than absorbed by airlines, which continue to face high financing and fuel costs. Over time, if transfer volumes fall below projections, Peru may come under pressure from both carriers and tourism stakeholders to revisit the fee level or adjust exemptions, as Mexico ultimately did when it scaled back the initially proposed amount of its cruise in transit levy.
For now, travelers can expect that connecting through major Latin American hubs will remain more expensive in 2026 than just a few years ago, as governments look to infrastructure users to shoulder more of the bill. Peru’s adoption of a dedicated transit fee confirms that the region’s debate over who pays for airports is increasingly being decided at the passenger level, one itinerary at a time.