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Ten years have passed sinceAeropuertos Argentina 2000 wasestablished. The company is the concessionaire chaired by executive Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte. Moreover,the firm has been operating the National Airport System of the Republic ofArgentina since 1998.
During his mandate, thesystem, which is made up of 33 airports, has become the largest private airportconcessionaire worldwide. The company is a global leader in the field.Accordingly, the company was rewarded with recognition from the entirecommunity when it was selected to chair the Association that represents thesector at the international level.
Even though it is a youngcompany, we can make a short review of its first ten years in business guidedby its president,Julio ErnestoGutiérrez Conte.
First, and according to itspresident, the evolution of AA2000can be divided in two stages. An initial stage was during the first two years,when the company focused on taking control over the system that was to manage inorder to carry out the management role it had been entrusted under theconcession contract that had to be performed. “Such takeover occurred withinthe framework of endless processes and complications,” Gutiérrez Conte explained.
Then, the second stage, asthe president of AA2000 added, came to an end in 2007 with the execution of thenew concession contract. This new scenario made it possible to overcome theinflexible components of the initial contract. “Such inflexibility in theprevious concession contract became evident in the face of the differentchanging scenarios that arose between 1995 and 2001. At that time, our companyhad to unfortunately overcome different types of crises such as the TequilaCrisis, as well as the Russian and the Brazilian crises. Thus, and given such situation,financing sources were really meager,” Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte explained.
With respect to the globalcrises (social, political, or economic crises) we have endured in the lastdecade, the one that has had a clear impact on the company and its business wasthe fall of the Twin Towers in 2001. According to Gutiérrez Conte, “it had aterrible impact that was subsequently worsened by Argentina’s crisis in 2001,” when the plunge inpassengers’ volumes, combined with the crisis, resulted in a really criticalsituation.
However, this gave rise tovery positive times as well. “In our case, AA2000could show its capacity to become an engine in this process, introducinginnovation and turning into a sort of leader in the region,” Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Contestressed. In addition, the company embarked on exporting such experience in theYerevan process, Armenia; in its ventures in Montevideo, Uruguay, and inGuayaquil, Ecuador, where it exported our expertise and consolidated its roleas a paradigm for airport business private management. This can be known as a“new airport culture” that did not exist since airport management used to beunder State-owned management systems, Gutiérrez Conteadded.
The president of AA2000 has a positive view for the future. Besides, he is eagerto continue working for the country, and strongly confident of the company’sprospects for growth overseas. Thus, after eight consecutive years of hardwork, he affirms that they are “now facing a new stage that is more closely associatedwith the possibility of strengthening their position in the future
