Easter in Peru began with flight cancellations, road blockades and vehicle chaos

On Holy Thursday he woke up in Peru with bad news: cancellation of flights due to the strike of air traffic controllers, blockade of the Central Highway due to the dismissal of a truck and the vehicular chaos in the Pan-American South that has affected hundreds of travelers who have wanted to spend these days of rest outside the Peruvian capital.

On Wednesday night, hundreds of people were on the road to travel to different destinations in the country, especially in southern Peru, which caused severe traffic congestion that occurred from 7:30pm.

The reports specified that precautions should be taken in the face of the panorama seen around Lima such as in the vicinity of the Jockey Plaza shopping center, the Atocongo bridge, Mall del Sur and the Alipio Ponce bridge, which were the areas most affected by this situation.

This occurred because, according to a statement issued by Rutas de Lima, the concessionaire of the Vías Nuevas de Lima project, there was a temporary closure of the right lane of the Pan-American South, at kilometer 13, in the direction to the south due to the detection of cracks in the Alipio Ponce bridge.

Although drivers were asked to use alternate roads, such as Pedro Miotta Avenue (formerly Panamericana Sur), there was an influx of cars after several hours, around midnight on Wednesday. This morning the situation was similar.

LAND TRAVEL SUSPENDED

The departure of buses from the Yerbateros terrestrial terminal, in the district of San Luis, towards the Central Highway was suspended temporary on Holy Thursday because the road was interrupted by a traffic accident at kilometer 65, in the San Jerónimo de Surco district in Huarochirí, in the Lima region.

A trailer had overturned and caused the authorities to order the suspension of traffic on this land route. In the early hours of this day, the esplanade of the terminal was empty and there was no interprovincial transport unit, something that caused a lot of discomfort for passengers who had already purchased tickets in advance to travel to the destinations of the highlands and central jungle of Peru.

“We were going to Huancayo, everyone here, but we were surprised that there is no pass on the Central Highway and, in turn, the passage has increased,” one user told América Noticias. The outlet reported that the cheapest tickets range from S/120 to S/150.

Added to this was a bus paralyzed by mechanical imperfections at kilometer 70 that led to more vehicle congestion that has not been solved.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL STRIKE

The Unified Union of Air Traffic Controllers of Peru (SUCTA) of the Peruvian Corporation of Airports and Commercial Aviation Sociedad Anónima (Corpac) initiated a strike of air traffic controllers that forced the the closure of the airports of Cusco, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Trujillo and Tacna. Although, hours later, the strike was lifted, this has caused hundreds of passengers who were going to travel for the long holiday to will be stranded and now they will be have to reschedule flights.

The general secretary of Corpac air traffic controllers, Víctor Zavaleta, explained that this drastic measure was reached because officials of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) had not complied with what was agreed and called for the separation of managers, whom he pointed out as the main culprits of this crisis.

The union's requests were the arbitration award, the payment of one more day's work, mobility and improvement of rest stays, which was established with Jorge Perlacios Velásquez, president of Corpac's board of directors, who announced that flights that had been canceled would be rescheduled in the coming hours.

However, due to this crisis there are about 1,500 passengers who were unable to travel to the different destinations in Peru that had their flights scheduled within the country, reported Lima Airport Partners (LAP), the concessionaire of Jorge Chávez international airport.

So far we are only working with a small number of air traffic controllers who are gradually restoring domestic flights.

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