Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., as part of the consortium known as the Manila International Airport Corp. (MIAC), brushed aside on Monday notions that it will bid for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport rehabilitation project only for its own account.
“There’s no truth that Aboitiz will do this outside the consortium. The consortium will assess the viability of the solicited terms as one,” said Cosette Canilao, president and chief executive of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., one of the members of the consortium.
The consortium acknowledged purchasing bid documents for the P171-billion contract to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Apart from Aboitiz InfraCapital, the other members of the MIAC include AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corporation, Alliance Global – Infracorp Development Inc., Filinvest Development Corporation and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corporation.
Two weeks earlier, the Department of Transportation and the Manila International Airport Authority first invited the big names in the infrastructures sector to participate in a single-stage competitive bidding process to rehabilitate-operate-expand-transfer the NAIA in accordance with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law and its revised 2022 implementing rules and regulations.
Bid documents show the concession agreement and other documents providing 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.
A draft concession agreement is set for release on 8 September this year with the pre-bid conference scheduled on 22 September. Bid submission is set for 27 December 2023.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) bidders should have a net worth of at least P20 billion who must post a bid security of P1.71 billion in standby letter of credit as part of its bid proposal.
“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 the consortium,” the agency said.
Bidders also should have been an owner or concessionaire of an airport for which capital costs incurred was at least P10 billion and may have owned or has been the concessionaire of the airport for less than 10 years, the documents show.
As for operation and maintenance (O&M) experience, bidders should have expertise and experience in the operation and maintenance of an international airport for at least three years and have handled annual passenger throughput of 25 million passengers.
The DOTr and the MIAAl serve as co-grantors of the project, which has a 15-year concession and an option for a 10-year extension.The agencies expect to award the contract before the year is out.
The NAIA rehab project aims to address longstanding issues at the premiere airport such as the inadequate capacity of its passenger terminal buildings and its restricted aircraft movement.
The project also aims to increase the airport’s annual capacity from 35 million to at least 62 million passengers and raise the air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour.
The project is also designed to boost the overall passenger experience and service quality, prevent long queues and lengthy waiting times, among other passenger inconveniences.
