The Department of Transportation on Wednesday said four large groups have submitted bid documents to win the P171-billion contract to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The DOTr identified the bidders as the Manila International Airport Consortium, the Asian Airport Consortium, the GMR Airport Consortium and the SMC SAP & Co. Consortium.
The DOTr’s bids and awards committee will open the technical bids in10 days from the submission of documents and right after that the financial bids.
“This is a very important project of the government. The airport is very very congested,” Transportation Secretary Jame Bautista said.
NAIA handles 50 million passengers annually, excessively higher than its designed capacity of only 32 million passengers a year.
Once the airport is turned over to the winning bidder, the airport’s capacity is projected to increase to 60 million passengers annually.
The DOTr expects to award the contract by the first quarter of 2024 and achieve financial closure by the second quarter.
The DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) serve as co-grantors of the project. The winning bidder has a 15-year concession plus a 10-year option to extend.
The NAIA project requires capital investment to improve the airport’s facilities consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other internationally-accepted standards.
This means modernizing the terminals, optimizing and enhancing the capacity of the airport to 62 million passengers a year, enhancing asset quality and passenger experience, improving the information and technology systems infrastructure and ensuring reliable operations over the period of the concession.
The concessionaire will be responsible for both landside and airside operations of the NAIA.
It will be required to undertake works to enhance the compliance, safety and security of the airport, optimize and boost airport capacity to cater to the increasing air traffic in accordance with objective parameters provided in detail in the concession agreement.
