The state-owned airline Aerolíneas Argentinas in May unveiled the plane that was to take the Argentine national football team to the 2026 World Cup. It featured a design that incorporates the No. 10 jersey of the team’s captain and star player, Lionel Messi. File Photo by Juan Ignacio/EPA
A U.S. federal appeals court upheld a ruling ordering Argentina to pay $390.9 million over the expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas airline, rejecting the government’s appeal seeking to overturn a judgment awarding compensation stemming from the airline’s 2008 nationalization.
The ruling Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit leaves the lower court’s decision in force and allows Titan Consortium, the current holder of the claim, to continue legal proceedings in the United States.
Titan is seeking enforcement of the award. The decision does not require immediate payment, but strengthens the fund’s position in the enforcement process.
Argentina’s Treasury Attorney General’s Office, the agency responsible for the state’s legal defense, said it is analyzing the legal options available to try to overturn the decision or mitigate its consequences.
In a statement cited by La Nación, the agency said the litigation “is the result of decisions made nearly two decades ago” and is part of the legal cases inherited by the current administration.
The dispute began in 2008, when the government of then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner nationalized Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral, which until then had been owned by the Spanish Marsans Group.
The former owners challenged the compensation they received and brought the case before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank Group institution that resolves disputes between states and foreign investors.
In 2017, the arbitration tribunal ruled in favor of Marsans and awarded $320 million in compensation, which later increased to $390.9 million with accrued interest.
However, the Spanish company never collected the compensation. It later assigned its rights under the arbitral award to Burford Capital, a British litigation finance firm, which subsequently transferred the claim to Titan Consortium, the current claimant.
Because arbitration awards issued by the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes cannot be enforced automatically, Titan initiated proceedings in U.S. courts to obtain judicial recognition of the award and pursue Argentine assets that could eventually be used to satisfy the debt.
Analyst Sebastián Maril, director of Latam Advisors, said the Court of Appeals rejected Argentina’s appeal, allowing Titan to continue the enforcement process in the United States.
In a post on X, Maril also said the decision revives another case involving Argentina, known as the Webuild case, which had been stayed pending resolution of the Aerolíneas Argentinas appeal.
Sources at Aerolíneas Argentinas told Infobae that the lawsuit is not directed at the airline, but rather at the Argentine state, as the litigation concerns only the manner in which the expropriation was carried out and not the airline’s current operations.
The ruling comes as the government of President Javier Milei pursues a strategy to improve Aerolíneas Argentinas’ finances with the goal of moving toward a possible privatization.
According to data published by Infobae, the airline reported an operating profit of $112.7 million in 2025 and completed its second consecutive year without receiving funding from the National Treasury.
The company attributed the improvement to a cost-cutting process, the closure of unprofitable routes and an operational restructuring.
However, any privatization will require congressional approval, where the government failed to include Aerolíneas Argentinas among the companies subject to privatization during debate over the Ley Bases reform package.
