The Department of Transportation on Thursday said two more firms have expressed interest to win the P171-billion contract to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The agency said the Spark 888 Management Inc. Asian Airport Consortium bought bid documents for the NAIA rehabilitation project.
DOTr did not provide details on the identity of the two firms.
The other bidders that have purchased bid documents include San Miguel Corp., India’s MR Group and the Manila International Airport Consortium.
San Miguel is currently building the P734 billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, while India’s GMR is the largest private airport operator in Asia and among the largest globally, handling passengers in excess of 100 million each year and a partner of Megawide Corp. at the Mactan Cebu International Airport project.
The third bidder, MIAC, is composed of AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Aboitiz InfraCapital, Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corporation, Alliance Global – Infracorp Development Inc., Filinvest Development Corporation and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corporation.
DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority in August began asking interested parties to participate in a single-stage competitive bidding process for a rehabilitate-operate-expand-transfer contract consistent with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law and its revised 2022 implementing rules and regulations.
Based on the invitation to bid, the concession agreement and certain other documents that provide 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 set for release on 8 September while the pre-bid conference is scheduled on 22 September. Bid submissions are scheduled on 27 December this year.
The DOTr specified bidder should have a net worth of at least P20 billion and must post bid security of P1.71 billion in standby letter of credit as part of the 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 such consortium,” the agency said.
Bidders 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 airport concessionaire for up to 10 years.
As for O&M experience, the bidder should have expertise and experience in the operation and maintenance of an international airport for three consecutive calendar years and 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 a 10-year extension option.
The agencies expect to award the contract by the end of the year.
The project addresses longstanding issues at the NAIA such as the inadequate capacity of passenger terminal buildings and restricted aircraft movement.
It also intends to increase airport capacity from 35 million to at least 62 million passengers and raise air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour.
The project is meant to improve the overall passenger experience and service quality that prevents long queues, lengthy waiting times and other passenger inconveniences.
