Risk of Uncertainties: the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic in the risk matrices of airport concession contracts
Concession contracts. Airport concessions. Risk matrix. Economic-financial balance. COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted airport concession contracts, leading concessionaires to request extraordinary reviews aimed at restoring the economic-financial balance of these agreements. This research investigated whether the risk matrices in airport concession contracts encompassed the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, after describing the context that led to the extraordinary reviews, this study examined, based on Manuel Atienza's theory of legal argumentation, ANAC's (National Civil Aviation Agency) arguments to justify framing the COVID-19 pandemic within the risk matrices of the airport concession contracts. As a result, ANAC's conclusion — that the application of the risk matrix would be sufficient to address the economic-financial imbalance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — proved unsupported by the arguments it claimed to rely on. This is because the risk matrices are important but incomplete instruments, and this incompleteness is evident, for example, in dealing with uncertainties — events that cannot be measured or priced — that destabilize the contract, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, addressing the initial research question, the study concluded that the risk matrices in airport concession contracts do not encompass the COVID-19 pandemic.