🗓️ August 10, 2026 ⏱️ 3 min 🏷️ read Transportation · Airports · Concessions

🏛️ BIDDING FOR AIR INFRASTRUCTURE

The Government analyzes the extension of the concession of air terminals in the midst of crossings for investments and profitability with the business sector

The Executive is negotiating with Aeropuertos Argentina, of the Eurnekian group, the future of the country's 35 terminals. While the company demands to extend the contract until 2056, the State demands verifiable investments and warns that it will not raise airport taxes.

✍️ Economy Editorial   Team |   📍 Buenos Aires, Argentina

📊 NEGOTIATION IN NUMBERS

The national government and Aeropuertos Argentina, the company of the Corporación América group linked to Eduardo Eurnekian, are holding open a key negotiation for the future of the country's air infrastructure. The file involves the concession of 35 air terminals and, as confirmed by official sources, the declared objective of the Executive is to close a new agreement before the end of 2026.

The discussion came to light after it transpired that a work plan of more than 600 million dollars – planned for Ezeiza, Aeroparque and other terminals in the interior – remains held up by the lack of a defined contractual horizon. Without certainty about the term of the concession, the company cannot go out to seek international financing or announce new investments.

The differences between the parties are concentrated in three central axes that so far prevent the agreement from being closed:

⏳  Term of the contract: the concessionaire intends to extend the link until 2056, with an additional option of ten years, while the Government seeks to tie it to periodic reviews.

💰  Profitability: the State requires that any extension be conditional on the effective, enforceable and verifiable compliance with the investment commitments assumed by the company.

🏗️  Financing of works: the company maintains that it needs a longer contractual horizon to access international credit and execute the modernization of the terminals.

The concession of Aeropuertos Argentina dates back to 1998 and originally expired in 2028. The extension that governs the contract today was signed in December 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, when the Executive Branch approved through Decree 1009/2020 a ten-year extension that took the term until February 2038.

That decision sought to compensate for the collapse of air traffic during the health emergency. However, according to official sources, the income from the contract fell by about 50% compared to what was projected as soon as the extension was activated, an imbalance that no tariff adjustment managed to compensate for and that today puts the link back on the table. Last year, the company and the regulator had signed a preliminary agreement that contemplated the extension until 2056, but that understanding was without effect.

The investment plan under discussion is around 600 million dollars and includes the expansion and modernization of the main terminals of the system. Among the priorities are Ezeiza and the international sector of Aeroparque Jorge Newbery – which in 2025 was close to 18 million passengers – in addition to the Mendoza airport, indicated as one of the terminals with the greatest urgency for expansion in the entire country.

While the new contractual scheme is being defined, Aeropuertos Argentina is also close to completing the investment plan of 606 million dollars that had been associated with the 2020 extension.

The contractual discussion takes place simultaneously with a significant improvement in the financial results of the concessionaire. During the first half of 2026, Aeropuertos Argentina recorded a net profit of 168,859 million pesos, 72% higher than in the same period of the previous year, and reduced its financial debt from 908,107 million to 736,984 million pesos.

This recovery in the company's profitability feeds the official demand for greater investment guarantees in exchange for any extension of the contract, in a context in which the Government seeks to prevent an extension from translating into extraordinary benefits for the company without concrete counterparts for the airport system.

As it was known, the possibility of increasing the airport taxes paid by airlines, particularly foreign airlines, was left off the negotiating table. The official argument is that an increase in these charges would reduce the country's competitiveness and could affect the number of air connections available. Nor is it considered viable, from the Executive, a reduction in costs that ends up deteriorating the quality of the service received by passengers.

Both the Government and the company agree, as it transpired, on the convenience of unlocking the contractual uncertainty as soon as possible. An extension of the uncertainty could affect the pace of investments and compromise the resources of the Fund for the Strengthening of the National Airport System (FFSNA), to which the company makes regular contributions.

At the moment, there is no closed agreement. Negotiations continue between the Ministry of Transportation, through the Regulatory Body of the National Airport System (ORSNA), and Aeropuertos Argentina, with a view to a definition before the end of the year.

Photographs and graphic material on the terminals mentioned in this note can be consulted in the following sources, available on the Internet:

✈️ Ezeiza International Airport Terminal — Aeropuertos Argentina 2000  ↗ See source

🛬 Aeroparque Jorge Newbery — Aeropuertos Argentina 2000  ↗ See source

🏢 Regulatory Body of the National Airport System (ORSNA)  ↗ See source

📰 La Nación — The government seeks to renegotiate the concession of Aeropuertos Argentina, but rejects the company ↗'s conditions See source

📰 Infobae — The Government assures that it will renegotiate the concession of the country's main airports before the end of the year  ↗ See source

📰 Infobae — More than USD 600 million in airport works slowed down by the lack of definition of the contract with the State  ↗ See source

📰 REPORTUR — Airports Argentina: Government to renegotiate concession  ↗ See source

📰 Profile  ↗ View source

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Note: document generated for informative journalistic purposes from public sources cited. Verify the validity of figures and the status of the negotiation at the time of publication.

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