Connecting time in Lima
 

We arrive in Lima on a Lan Peru flight from MIA at 4:35am. There's a TACA flight to CUZ at 5:45am. Is 1hr10' enough time to connect from an international flight to a domestic flight in Lima?

The next TACA flight is at 10:10, which is quite a long wait and will cut into the time we'll have in Ollantaytambo. Plus I am worried about taking the last flight of the day TACA has to Cuzco.

Please advise. Thanks!

I would put this in the possible but risky category. First of all your MIA-LIM flight must be on time. Second you have to worry about the time to be processed at immigration. I've experienced immigration at Lima taking under 30 mins from landing to immigration to baggage collection to taxi before, but I have also experienced it taking over 90 mins. The key is the length of the line at immigration. I haven't done it at 4:30am though. Maybe check how many other flights are arriving around the same time as yours as this gives you an idea into the likely length of the immigration line. To be honest, personally I would not attempt this unless your domestic flight can be changed for low or no penalty if things don't go your way (or if buying a new one one the day isn't too outrageous).

Thank you for your quick and detailed reply. I agree it's too risky (have to go through immigration and probably security for domestic flight). For our peace of mind, I'll book the 10am flight and if we can get through immigration and security quickly, maybe we can try to stand by for the earlier flight.

Hmmm...now my next question is how and where we should pass the time between 4:35am to 10:10 in LIM. I have ExPlat on AA and PremEx on UA (but traveling with 2 friends, 1 gold on AA and Premier on UA and 1 with no status). Is there a lounge that we can use to rest and wait for our TACA flight? I suspect we'll still be very sleepy at that time and it might be too early for us to catch a cab to Lima for breakfast.

Both lounges in Lima are located airside at the international departure side of the terminal, so you won't be able to access them. If you want to have some breakfast there are some coffee shops on the second floor before security... 4d might be a good option.

On a somewhat related note, I'm arriving at 6:40AM on the JFK-LIM LAN flight. I had booked a cheap hotel for one night but am now considering taking the TACA 10:10AM to Cusco and a hotel cancellation charge to concentrate my time in Lima at the end of my trip and avoiding the hassles/costs of extra taxi rides. Are there any official on-time statistics for the LAN flights? I doubt that and was wondering whether anyone had anecdotal info that might suggest this might be cutting things too closely. The only time I've been in the Lima airport was for a connection to UIO, so I've never gone through customs/immigration. Any help would be dearly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

I sometimes check flightstats.com (not official LAN info) and this is the Rating for flight LA 531. I would say that at 6:40am immigration is probably not busy as many more flights land around midnight. I think you can search for all arrivals at LIM on flightstats.com just in case.

Many thanks andreadbc. I wasn't aware of this resource and will check it out now.

On a related note, I'll be flying in from Cuzco at 9:20am and flying out to Piura at 11:00am. That's probably enough time for domestic to domestic but will I have time to adjust to the altitude change?