Alterra Has Until Friday To Decide On Proposal Or Risk Losing Management of the Juan Santamaría
The future of Alterra, as administrator of the Juan Santamaría (San José) international airport, will be decided this Friday, when the term to restructure its financing suggested by a technical committee, ends.

The technical committee is made up two members of the International Financial Corporation (IFC), two Alterra functionaries and two officials from the Consejo Técnico de Aviación Civil (CTAC) - civil aviation.

CTAC notified Alterra and the banks last week on their proposal for changes and that the clock is ticking if they want to continue with the expansion and administration of the San José airport.

The vice-minister of Transportes and president of CTAC, Viviana Martín, explained that the proposal extends the current contract to between the government and Alterra to administer the airport for an additional five years, however, there is a legal problem.

"The term of the bidding contracts cannot exceed 25 years, which begin at the time the contract is awarded...", said Martín, who added that due to this legal impediment, the current contract can only be extended for another three and half years and not five.

Another point in the proposal is that fines for the incompletion of the contract terms and delays be set to a maximum of us$9 million dollars, something Martín said it will be impossible for CTAC to accept.

Martín added the CTAC will continue to impose fines as per the original contract terms, which could mean that the financing banks may not shoulder any amount over the us$9 million.

Another condition of the agreement is that construction of phases 3 and 4 of the terminal are not contingent on the availability of financing, the reason Alterra stalled the completion of phase 2, which is now under construction, moving at a snails pace after a quick start.

CTAC also wants that Alterra withdraw formally and completely its lawsuit against the Sate which is now before the Juzgado Contencioso Administrativo and have the new boarding gates ready and operations by December 2007, the start of the heavy traffic season at the airport.

If Alterra and its financiers accept the proposal, the next step would be to get the approval of the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller's office).

If the group does not accept the proposal, CTAC is prepared to begin the process of cancelling all contracts it has with Alterra, which would mean CTAC to either take over the management of the airport of find a new administrator.