NAIA Consortium taking all risks in bid to rehabilitate main airport

MANILA, Philippines — The consortium of seven conglomerates which offered to rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is not asking for any government guarantee to expand and improve the country’s main international gateway, noting that terminal fees are not considered as government guarantees.

NAIA Consortium spokesperson Jimbo Reverente said terminal fees are no different from the fares passengers pay when riding LRT or when using toll roads.

He said government guarantees, on the other hand, are those that in general protect proponents from risks and make sure they make money even if the project fails.

Reverente said the consortium is not asking for such protection and guarantee, and instead is taking all the risks, including a drop in the number of passengers and consequently revenue.

According to Reverente, all airport proposals have provisions for terminal fees which are subjected to reasonable adjustment during the life of the contract.

The consortium, composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., will spend around P102 billion to increase the terminal capacity of NAIA, install a people mover that will efficiently connect the NAIA terminals, and raise the number of flights to give passengers more options and flexibility.

The Manila International Airport Authority board approved last month the grant of original proponent status (OPS) to the consortium for the airport’s rehabilitation project.

The grant of OPS to the NAIA Consortium would give the group the right to match offers from other parties when a Swiss challenge is conducted for the project.

NAIA has a design capacity of 31 million passengers but accommodated 42 million last year.

“If we get the clearance to start work by late this year, we can increase this capacity to 47 million by 2020 and to 65 million by 2022. There will be enough space for everybody and NAIA can serve as a catalyst for growth all over the country in terms of trade, tourism and investments,” Reverente said.