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Over Nazca or Overbooked?

One of the more intriguing mysteries of the world, the famous Nazca Lines, are located in a desert area along the central coast of Peru. There are more than 10,000 lines drawn in the desert floor, some depicting impressive giant animals, some strange human figures and some as almost perfect geometrical forms. No definitive explanation has been so far offered for their existence. The Lines are visible for what they are only from the air and are one of the country's three main tourist attractions. Aero Condor was the first operator to introduce sightseeing flights over the Lines, more than twenty years ago. Today the same company operates quite a large fleet of single-engine aircraft (Cessna 172, 206/207 and 208B) based at the airfields of Nazca and nearby Ica, where are also located the maintenance facilities of Aero Condor TMA. Daily flight operations at Nazca start at 7 am and continue until sunset, at about 5 pm. The round trip lasts about 45 minutes, at a cost of $50 US per person.

Unfortunately, the peak tourist season of June, July and August is wintertime in southern hemisphere Peru, with frequent morning mist conditions in the area which inevitably delay flights for several hours - maybe only allowing the first flight to begin around 10 am. Despite this well-known and predictable cirumstance, Aero Condor continues to sell the full capacity of its entire fleet as if its theoretic 10 hour daily activity were really possible. Needless to say it isn't, and this frequently leaves a large number of (angry) passengers on the ground, as happened on August 5, 2002. People come from the four corners of the earth for this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the Nazca lines, and as the luckier passengers made their flights, getting shorter and shorter as dusk approached, the overcrowded Aero Condor office saw a lot of bumped passengers still trying to obtain their pre-paid flights, generally booked well in advance, and probably linked into some tourist schedule which only gives you one day to see the Lines anyway. Five of the more insistent passengers, after a fairly heavy "debate", were able to get a "special flight" (at a $30 US supplement) of a mere 25 minutes in the darkening sky!

Aero Condor evidently could do with a different approach to "customer care and satisfaction", something currently sadly lacking. The peak season really needs more aircraft and maybe also some fleet and aircrew backup to cope with the shorter day imposed by weather conditions. Luckily, competitors are also flourishing at Nazca, with new entrants like Aero Ica, Aero Montecarlo, Aero Palpa, Aeroparacas, Alas Peruanas, TAE, Travel Air and Taxi Aereo also offering a similar service. They even cost less! Maybe Aero Condor have had it too good for too long. A useful snippet of information for your next trip to Peru!

Cessna U206G Stationair 6 II OB-1192 of Aero Condor landing at Nazca, Peru. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, August 2002)