Aeroperu is the abridged version of Empresa Nacional de Aeronavegacion del Peru, SA or the National Air Navigation Company of Peru. It is the national flag air carrier of Peru.

Its history began in 1973 when Aeroperu was formed to take over the international routes operated by APSA then owned by Pan American Airways. Initially the airline was mainly controlled by the Peruvian Air Force.

Aeroperu had its headquarters at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru and soon grew into an international airline and at the same time also developed an extensive jet aircraft route system in the domestic market. In its infant years, Peru’s flag carrier used aircrafts like Fokker F-28, Boeing 727, McDonnell Douglas DC-8 which were leased from Viasa airline as well as a Lockheed L-1011. Aeroperu focused mainly on the South American routes, although it had scheduled flights to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City and also in Miami. 

Aeroperu faced economic challenges in the 1990s which was instrumental in the sale of 47 percent of the airline to AeroMexico. Aeroperu then underwent an image overhaul. It re-introduced a new livery similar to AeroMexico. A fleet of three Boeing 727-200 and three DC10-15 aircrafts were purchased from Mexicana, another subsidiary of AeroMexico during that period. An additional number of three Boeing 757 aircrafts were introduced as property of AeroMexico and yet another aircraft was leased. An additional service to Los Angeles was added to the list.

Unfortunately Aeroperu suffered two fatal events which involved Flight 603 and perhaps was instrumental to the airline’s demise. This fatal incident took place when on that particular occasion, before the take-off of Flight 603 the maintenance crew erroneously left masking tape over the sensitive static ports of the plane. Due to this the crew received contradictory and in fact even false flight data, particularly from the altimeter after the aircraft had taken off. This failure even prevented the ground radar from assisting the flight crew successfully during the emergency which ultimately led to the crash of the plane into the Pacific Ocean on October 2, 1996. This was a severe loss to the airline and it was never able to recover after that fatal incident.

Financial difficulties forced Aeroperu to cease operations on March 10, 1999. The principle creditors of Aeroperu decided to liquidate its assets on August 18 of the same year. 

The final livery of Aeroperu featured a white upper fuselage and a grey lower fuselage with dark blue and red cheatlines, the Peruvian flag over the front passenger windows, the tail covered in dark blue, with the name aeroperu inscribed in white and a Chavin symbol in white.