ARCHIVED - Former Corvera airport management company must pay 182 million euros to Murcia government

17 years after the airport project was approved the legal wrangling may at last be near to its end

It is reported in regional newspaper La Verdad on Friday morning that the long-running dispute between the Murcia government and Aeromur, the company which was awarded the original construction and management contract at the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera, has at last been decided by the High Court in favour of the government.

As a result, and with no possibility of further appeals, Aeromur is deemed to owe the government 182.6 million euros in respect of the bank loan the consortium took out and for which the government acted as guarantor, later taking on the debt when Aeromur ran into severe financial difficulties after the contract was rescinded six years ago.

The sentence issued by the High Court confirms that the unilateral rescission of the contract by the government was justified by Aeromur’s failure to fulfil the conditions stipulated, once again vindicating the administration’s actions following similar decisions reached in the regional high courts and in the Supreme Court.

It may just be that at last the legal wrangling which has surrounded the airport since the regional government first approved plans for it to be built in 2003 has at last come to an end with this latest ruling, with Aeromur (led by the construction giant Sacyr) having lost all of its legal battles against the government in recent years and the debt having been confirmed again and again.

After the construction of the airport in Corvera was decided upon in 2003 it was not until April 2007 that the contract was awarded to Aeromur, the timescale stipulated at the time being one of 21 months for construction and a further 3 months for tests before the official opening of the infrastructure. As long ago as 2010, though, an extension of 18 months was granted along with a government loan of 200 million euros to Aeromur, and three years later the government’s patience ran out and the rescission proceedings began.

Not until a new contract was awarded to Aena in late 2017 did real progress begin to be made towards the opening of the facility, which finally took place on 15^th January 2019.

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