The Manila International Airport Consortium—a new group led by six Filipino conglomerates and US-based Global Infrastructure Partners submitted on Thursday a fresh offer to the government for the upgrade of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for more than P100 billion.
Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Alliance Global – Infracorp Development Inc., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp. joined forces with Global Infrastructure Partners, one of the leading infrastructure investors and airport operators in the world, to rehabilitate and upgrade NAIA to meet the growing air traffic demand.
The consortium said the over P100-billion offer would include a significant upfront payment to the government and investments in new facilities and technology to transform NAIA into a world-class airport.
“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,” said MIAC director Kevin Tan.
“Recognizing the primacy of NAIA to the country’s economic growth, the consortium is bringing highly complementary expertise and making an unprecedented commitment to its sustainability and continued viability,” he 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,” said Josephine Gotianun Yap, who is also a director of MIAC.
“The consortium is confident that with additional financial resources as well as operating process and technology improvements, NAIA can help achieve that vision,” she said.
The consortium said that with significant capital investment and the implementation of proposed operational and technological improvements, NAIA would have the ability to serve up to 62.5 million passengers a year efficiently by 2028—or more than double than its currently constrained design capacity, which stands at only 31 million passengers.
Pre-pandemic passenger traffic reached 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.
“We look forward to a very near future where we in the private sector are working hand in glove with the government to operate an efficient and future-ready international gateway in and out of a more prosperous Philippines,” he said.
A previous consortium submitted in 2018 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 amid the pandemic.
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 NAIA and development of two major railway projects.