Gov’t eyes consultations on planned airport projects

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration is set to consult major stakeholders on the planned bundling of major airport projects being under the government public private partnership (PPP) scheme after successfully attracting foreign and local firms for the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu international airport expansion project.

Cosette Canilao, executive director of the PPP Center, said in an interview with reporters that the government is set to conduct market sounding and consultation for several airport projects of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

 â€œWe will do market sounding and consultation for rest of the airport projects of DOTC in the PPP pipeline. We will probably hold that in early January,” Canilao said.

She pointed out that the projects include the airports in Iloilo, Davao, Bacolod, Puerto Princesa, Bohol, and Laguindingan.

She explained that the government is looking at bundling the projects to attract top investors from the aviation industry just like what happened during the bidding for the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu international airport expansion project.

“We want to see what their preferences are like the sizes for bundling. This will aid us in structuring this,” Canilao said.

DOTC spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal earlier said the agency was looking at bundling the operation and maintenance of the airports in the cities of Iloilo, Davao, and Bacolod.

“One option for us is to bundle the projects, probably operation and maintenance of three airports, to make it more attractive,” Sagcal said earlier.

Sagcal said they are keen on attracting at least three top airport operators for the smaller airport projects that entail only operation and maintenance.

 â€œIt’s on feasibility study stages, but we’re considering it for the PPP pipeline,” he said.

The PPP project looking at expanding the country’s second largest international gateway attracted foreign airport operators includes ADC & HAS of Houston Airport, Malaysia Airports Berhad, Singapore’s Changi Airport, South Korea’s Incheon Airport, France’s Aeroports de Lyon, Switzerland’s Zurich Airport, India’s Delhi Airports.

The tandem of Filipino-owned Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based airport operator GMR edged several conglomerates led by San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., SM Group, and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. after submitting the highest bid for the project.

The GMR Infrastructure of India – Megawide consortium submitted the highest bid of P14.404 billion followed by the Filinvest – CAI Consortium with P13.999 billion, and Premier Airport Group of SM Group of retail magnate Henry Sy with P12.5 billion.

MPIC-JGS Airport consortium led by infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan and JG Summit Holdings of taipan John Gokongwei submitted a bid of P11.23 billion while AAA Airport Partners led by the conglomerate Ayala Group and Cebu-based Aboitiz Land forwarded a bid of P11.088 billion.

The San Miguel Corp.-Incheon Airport consortium submitted a bid of P9.05 billion while the Lopez groups’ First Philippine Airports submitted the lowest bid of P4.7 billion.

The DOTC intends to issue a Notice of Award on Jan. 6 and sign a contract with the winning group on Feb. 6.