- The pandemic has cuts the company’s income by 34% in the first year of the pandemic increasing its losses to 1.9 million euros
The concessionaire of the AP-7 motorway that connects Alicante with Torrevieja and Cartagena, Ausur, is taking advantage of Royal Decree-Law 26/2020 on economic reactivation measures against the impact of covid-19 to request compensation for the fall in traffic and income that it suffered as a result of the state of alarm and travel restrictions introduced to curb the pandemic.
This is reflected by the company in the annual accounts for the 2020 financial year, which reflect a significant increase in the company’s losses, which now show 1.9 million euros.
The decree enables compensation the holders of public concessions for the consequences derived from covid, in restoring the “economic balance of the contract”, either by modifying the contract, or providing an extension to the term of the concession, the route for the that Ausur has chosen.
The company, that was awarded the construction and operation of the AP-7 motorway in 1998 for a period of 50 years, has asked to extend this period for a maximum of 235 and a minimum of 74 days, to compensate it for the losses caused by the restrictions.
The reduction in mobility caused by the pandemic and the fall in tourism meant a cut in Ausur’s income of more than 34% in 2020, going from the 13.7 million with which it closed 2019 to just over nine million. The company itself has said that the movement of light vehicles fell by 40.77% and that of trucks by around 6%.
Despite everything, the concessionaire achieved a positive operating result, but the financial expenses of its large debt led to a negative final result. As such the company’s losses went from just 72,000 euros in 2019 to 1.9 million last year.
