The government on Wednesday rolled out a single-stage bidding process to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country’s main international gateway.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) invited interested parties to take on the
P171 billion contract to rehabilitate, operate, expand, transfer the facility in accordance with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) Law and its Revised 2022 Implementing Rules and Regulations.
The concession agreement and other documents providing background information on the project will be made available to bidders through a virtual data room upon payment of a participation fee of P2.75 million or $50,000.
A draft concession agreement is expected by 8 September, the pre-bid conference by 22 September and submission of bids by 27 December this year.
“Interested parties and bidders shall bear all costs, liabilities, losses and damages associated with or resulting from their participation in the bidding process,” according to the document.
“The DOTr and MIAA shall not be held responsible or liable in any way for any such costs, losses or damages incurred by any bidder (whether incurred by it directly or indirectly, or by its advisors, affiliates or other persons), regardless of the results of the bidding process,” it said.
According to the DOTr, if the bidder is a partnership, corporation or any other juridical entity, the bidder itself or its affiliate cannot be an airline-related entity.
“If the bidder is a consortium and any consortium member or such consortium members’ affiliates is an airline-related entity, then such consortium member cannot own or be proposed to own more than 33 percent interest in such consortium,” the agency said.
It added that the bidder must have been an owner or concessionaire of an airport for which capital costs incurred was at least P10 billion and may have owned or been the concessionaire for the airport for less than 10 years within the eligible period.
As for operations and maintenance experience, the bidder must have expertise and experience in having undertaken the operation and maintenance of an international airport of at least three years, handled an annual passenger throughput of at least 25 million passengers and of which at least 10 million of those passengers were international passengers.
“The entity whose O&M experience is being submitted to fulfill this requirement cannot be an operator of any of the greater capital region airports, namely: (i) Clark International Airport, (ii) New Manila International Airport, and (iii) Sangley Point International Airport,” the document read.
To qualify, the bidder must have a net worth of at least P20 billion and post bid security of P1.71 billion in standby letter of credit as part of its bid proposal.
The DOTr and MIAA also reserve the right to reject any or all bids, declare a failure of bidding, modify the bidding documents or any aspects thereof at anytime.
They also reserve the right not to award the contract for any reason whatsoever and without need of any explanation.
The DOTr and the MIAA serve as co-grantors of the project which will have a 15-year concession and an option for a 10-year extension.
The agency expects to award the P171-billion contract by end-2023.
The project seeks to address longstanding issues such as inadequate capacity of passenger terminal buildings and restricted aircraft movement at the NAIA.
It also seeks to increase capacity from 35 million to at least 62 million passengers and raise air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour, improve the overall passenger experience and service quality, prevent long queues, cut lengthy wait time and other passenger discomfort.
The NEDA board, chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., earlier approved the solicited proposal to rehabilitate, operate, expand and transfer the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. It is now known as the Solicited NAIA PPP Project.
According to the invitation to bid, the concession agreement and certain other documents to provide background information on the project will be made available to prospective bidders through a Virtual Data Room upon payment of a participation fee of P2.75 million or $50,000.
