Aboitiz unit eyes Clark airport operations and maintenance

MANILA, Philippines — The infrastructure business unit of the Aboitiz Group is interested in the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark International Airport.

“We’ll look at it,” Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. manager Iara Arcilla said when asked if the group would be interested in bidding for the O&M of the Clark airport.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the approved parameters and guidelines for the bidding of the O&M of the Clark International Airport would be published this month.

The expansion of the Clark Airport is the first hybrid public-private partnership (PPP) project under the government’s Build Build Build program.

Using the hybrid PPP approach means the government would spend to build the infrastructure and later, bid the O&M to the private sector.

In December last year, the consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India was awarded the construction contract for the new terminal building of the Clark International Airport.

Under the project, the Clark International Airport would be able to accommodate more passengers through the new 101,977-square meter terminal.

In particular, the new terminal would increase Clark airport’s capacity to 12 million passengers per annum by 2020 from four million at present.

Apart from increased capacity for the Clark airport, the project would also reduce strain on the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which handled more than 40 million passengers last year, higher than its 30 million annual capacity.

Apart from airports, Aboitiz InfraCapital vice president Jerome Cachau said the group is also interested in opportunities in the water and tollway sectors.

Aboitiz InfraCapital is part of the NAIA Consortium composed of seven conglomerates which offered  to rehabilitate and transform the NAIA into a regional hub at a cost of P350 billion over a 35-year concession period.