Six of the country’s biggest conglomerates have consolidated and submitted an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate and upgrade the Ninoy International Airport.
The more than P100 billion proposal was submitted by Manila International Airport Consortium and US-based Global Infrastructure Partners.
It dangled a significant upfront payment to the government and committed investments in new facilities and technology to transform the dilapidated NAIA into a world-class airport.
The conglomerates include Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., Ayala-led AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Lucio Tan’s Asia Emerging Dragon Corp., Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global – Infracorp Development Inc., the Gotianun’s Filinvest Development Corp. and the Gokongwei’s JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp.
“We are ready to put our combined resources forward in partnering with the Government on this massive undertaking. Our consortium brings unrivalled expertise, proven solutions and extensive capital. As the only large-scale operating gateway airport to the Philippines, the modernization and long-term sustainability of NAIA is a critical development priority for both the country’s public and private sectors,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, AGI chief executive said.
“We submit this proposal united in the belief that our gateway to the world needs to represent the best of who we are as Filipinos. Passing through our international gateway should be a seamless experience. We want the first thing that locals and foreigners alike see when they arrive in the Philippines, to be a source of pride for all Filipinos. The consortium is confident that with additional financial resources as well as operating process and technology improvements, NAIA can help achieve that vision,” Filinvest’s CEO Lourdes Josephine Gotianun Yap said.
The proposed upgrade will allow NAIA to serve up to 62.5 million passengers a year by 2028, more than double its constrained design capacity at present of only 31 million passengers for the four terminals.
Pre-pandemic passenger traffic already hit 48 million passengers in 2019, underscoring the need to upgrade the airport to meet growing demand.
“We envision a truly world-class airport befitting the beauty of the Philippines: one where congestion, reliability issues, and unpleasant passenger experiences will become things of the past. Domestic and international connectivity are keys to unlock economic growth to take the country to upper middle-income status,” Tan said.
Airports owned or operated by members of the consortium include Mactan-Cebu, Clark, London Gatwick, Edinburgh, London City and Sydney airports.
In 2018, the NAIA Consortium submitted an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate NAIA for P102 billion, but did not push through after two years of negotiations over unresolved issues with the government and the financial viability of the project.
Megawide Construction Corp. and partner India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd. also submitted a proposal to rehabilitate and upgrade NAIA for $3 billion with a contract period of 18 years.
The Marcos administration expressed willingness to entertain new proposals for the multibillion-peso rehabilitation and upgrade of the NAIA.
The project aims to alleviate the worsening air traffic congestion at the main gateway and resolve capacity constraints by reconfiguring and renovating facilities and enhancing operation and maintenance. This will allow for the accommodation of more traffic.
The rehabilitation project also aims to broaden NAIA’s role as a key economic and tourism driver for Metro Manila and the whole Philippines, deliver capital infrastructure investment to improve the airport’s efficiency and increase its capacity to meet the growing passenger demand from the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region.
The Department of Transportation signed last week three transaction advisory service agreements with the Asian Development Bank to expedite the privatization of the operations and maintenance of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and development of two major railway projects.
