The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is set to transfer the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to the San Miguel Group by 14 September this year.
“We will hand over the airport to New NAIA Infra Corp. by September 14,” Timothy John Batan, DOTr undersecretary for planning and project development, said on Wednesday in post-SONA discussions.
NNIC is composed of San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics Inc., RLW Aviation Development Inc. and Incheon International Airport Corp.
Batan said the government expects increasing the passenger capacity of the airport from 35 million to 62 million passengers once the private concessionaire completes the expansion of the airport.
Runway capacity will also increase from 40 movements per hour to 48 movements per hour.
“In the first six years of the concession, we expect our concessionaire to put in estimated investment of P88 billion into the NAIA,” Batan said.
According to Batan, this is higher than average capital outlay of P2 billion a year under government from 2010 to 2023 at the NAIA.
Apart from convenience to passengers, Batan said the government projects generating P900 billion in revenues over the course of the 25-year concession period, inclusive of the P30 billion upfront NNIC payment, P2 billion annual payments and 82 percent government revenue share.
In March, NNIC (formerly SMC SAP & Co. Consortium) signed the P170.6-billion contract to operate, maintain and upgrade the NAIA for 15 years, extendible for another 10 years.
The NAIA project involves capital investments to improve airport facilities in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and similar internationally accepted standards.
The concessionaire will be responsible for both land side and airside operations of the NAIA.
The concessionaire is required to undertake works enhancing compliance to the safety and security of the airport and optimizing airport capacity to cater to the increasing air traffic in accordance with objective parameters to be provided in detail in the concession agreement.
