Guess it's up to the judge now.
You are exactly right! It will be the judge deciding this case and that's a good thing.
I will not be surprised to see the judge ruling fully on the side of the airport authority.
Nagico can claim all they want about mitigation but with both major hurricanes happening in the span of 10 days and the majority of damages were caused by Irma, to include, severe wind, water and salt damage from hurricane Irma, with terminal equipment destroyed and about 80% of it's roof damaged. There was also damage to many of the support buildings, all of the exterior fencing, and a host of support equipment. Mitigation doesn't happen in a vacuum and the exigent circumstances favor the airport's case.
The volume of public information that is readily available supports the claims being made by the SXM Airport Authority. Just the issue of loss of revenue is very easily researched by looking at the airport's own website. There are annual reports on their website for the years 2006 through 2015 and they include audited financial statements for each year. I can understand that neither 2016 or 2017 has been posted as there has probably been Acts of God that have prevented their completion. -- The Departure Fee for International travelers is one of the larger sources of revenue for the airport. The Airport Authority gets to keep 100% of all departure fees received. Rounding off numlbers and being conservative in estimates, there would have been more than 1.5 million international passengers paying the $30 departure fee, generating $45 million in operating revenue. Based on the published listing that international passenger travel is down by at least 70% that means there would be a loss of expected revenue of $31.5 million. The airport is requesting less in compensation.
Why should the airport settle for Nagico's offer? As was discussed recently on a prior thread, rebuilding a major loss normally takes longer and costs more than new construction.
The airport is rebuilding, maybe not as fast as some would want, but maybe their expectations are unrealistic. I've seen it stated that roof repairs should have started immediately after Irma but there was another major hurricane bearing down on the island. There were not the necessary supplies or workers to facilitate the needed repairs in that 10 day period.
Putting away my soapbox.
