Korean firm shows interest
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said Wednesday seven groups are vying for the P170.6-billion deal to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“So far, seven prospective bidders have expressed interest to operate and maintain NAIA,” Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.
Bautista said South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp. was the latest group that bought bid documents for the NAIA privatization.
Other groups that earlier bought bid documents were San Miguel Corp., India’s GMR Group, Manila International Airport Consortium, Spark 888 Management Inc., Asian Airport Consortium and Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.
“ A technical briefing conference will be conducted on Oct. 27 among the prospective bidders,” said Bautista.
The DOTr earlier rejected the request of a prospective bidder to raise the equity cap for airline-related entities participating in the privatization of the main gateway.
The bids and awards committee of the DOTr said the proposed increase in the equity limit for airline-related entities of up to 50 percent “is not acceptable.”
The DOTr already restricts airline-related entities in the consortium from owning more than 20 percent.
It said the goal of the restriction is to prevent airline-related entities from controlling the concessionaire.
The DOTr also denied the request of the prospective bidder to remove Clark International Airport from the definition of Greater Capital Region (GCR) entity.
The agency said, however, that “after due deliberation, the participation restriction of 20 percent for GCR entity is increased to 33 percent.”
Under the NAIA bid documents, a company that operates a GCR airport—which includes the airports in Clark, Bulacan and Cavite—is restricted to owning only 20 percent of the consortium.
The bid submission was set on Dec. 27, 2023. The DOTr expects to award the contract by January 2024.
The DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) serve as co-grantors for the project, which would have a 15-year concession and an option for a 10-year extension.
The NAIA project involves capital investment to improve the airport’s facilities to comply 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 per annum, 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 to be provided in detail in the concession agreement.