German leading airline Lufthansa has shown interest in relaunching services to Peru, Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Eduardo Ferreyros informed on Thursday.
Remarks were made after a meeting with Lufthansa Director for Latin America held in the German capital.
If implemented, said flights would contribute to meeting the Inca nation's goal to double tourist inflow by 2021.
"We got a great reception from Lufthansa, and they are satisfied with Peru's interest [in reinstating flights to Lima]," Ferreyros stressed.
"They have requested that we work on an agreement project to pave the way for the arrival of [Lufthansa] aircrafts," he noted.
Lufthansa's presence in Latin America includes weekly flights to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, as well as services to Bogota.
To join the said destinations, Peru has offered to promote Lufthansa incoming flights with the country's Exports and Tourism Promotion Board (PromPeru), he indicated.
The meeting took place within the framework of a forum on Latin America. The event convened over 500 German businessmen, who analyze investment opportunities in the region, including the Andean nation.
Qantas
On the other hand, the government official referred to ongoing negotiations with Australian Qantas Airways to launch services to Peru.
"I'll be traveling to Vietnam in May for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] Ministerial Meeting. After that, I hope to arrive in Australia; it would be ideal to close the deal with Qantas there," Ferreyros anticipated.
"We want to attract the world's top airlines to boost connectivity. We need this to achieve the goal of doubling foreign tourist arrivals by 2021," he explained.
"We must be at around 3.5 million [incoming] tourists, and we want to reach 7 million by the independence bicentennial [2021]."
Lastly, the Tourism head addressed plans to attract low-cost airlines.
"Ongoing improvements such as [Lima's] Jorge Chavez International Airport's second runway and new terminal, as well as [Cusco-based] Chinchero International Airport works contribute to this end," he expressed.
(END) MMG/JJN/DHT/MVB