Argentina appeals again over $390m Aerolíneas Argentinas expropriation award

Argentina has launched another legal effort to resist enforcement of an arbitration award tied to its 2008 expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas, according to court filings referenced in reporting on the case. The dispute dates back to the nationalisation of the airline, which was then owned by Spain's Grupo Marsans.

An international arbitration panel under the World Bank's ICSID system ruled in 2017 that Argentina's takeover of the carrier had been unlawful, ordering compensation of about $320 million plus interest and costs. Argentina did not pay and failed in a 2019 bid to have that ruling annulled.

The compensation claim has since changed hands more than once. Litigation funder Burford Capital acquired the rights and later sold them to investment fund Titan Consortium, which filed in Washington in 2021 to enforce the award. Argentina argued the claim was time-barred under a three-year limitation period, but the court applied a twelve-year period instead and upheld the award in 2024, with the total now grown to around $390 million including interest.

Argentina appealed that ruling and lost. According to the report, the government has now filed a further challenge, marking its latest attempt to avoid payment after a string of defeats in United States courts. No date for a final resolution is given in the available material.