The Arbitration Commission that decided the conflict between the Ministry of Public Works of Chile (MOP) and the operator of the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport of Santiago, Sociedad Concesionaria Nuevo Pudahuel, has accepted one of the dealer’s demands related to the influence of the Covid 19 pandemic. The controversy arose in 2021 before a technical panel made up of referees Enrique Alcaide, Luz María Jordán and Alejandro Romero.
In the Award, the court “condemns the defendant to comply with its obligation to reestablish contractual commutativity, for the detrimental effects produced by the pandemic for the Concessionaire”, and urges the parties to hold a “negotiation in good faith” to agree on the best way to adapt the concession contract to what was originally assumed.
The court gives a maximum period of six months for the parties to start talks, although they can extend it by mutual agreement.
The Concessionaire Company claimed that the COVID 19 pandemic constituted a risk not assumed in the contract and requested that the MOP adapt the contract by extending the term so that the consequences of the pandemic are distributed equitably between the parties.
However, the court rejected the main claim and the first subsidiary claim of the concessionaire that requested payments from the Chilean State.
The operation of the Santiago airport is the subject of other arbitrations such as the one being settled before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), presented by the French ADP International and Vinci Airports, part of Nuevo Pudahuel together with the Italian Astaldi .
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