NAIA Consortium clears major hurdle in airport bid

MANILA, Philippines — The super consortium of seven business conglomerates seeking to redevelop the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has been granted original proponent status (OPS) for its proposal, seven months after it submitted the plan to the government in February.

The consortium will pour in P102 billion to rehabilitate, upgrade, expand, operate, and maintain the aging NAIA, the country’s main gateway, for 15 years.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) granted the OPS on Wednesday, which now makes the proposal soon ready for a Swiss challenge.

“We are very grateful to the DOTr and MIAA for granting the consortium the OPS as it triggers a series of steps we need to work on to make this project happen. The NAIA Consortium looks forward to working closely with the DOTr and MIAA to progress this initiative. We are committed to see this project through and to follow the proper legal processes,” NAIA Consortium spokesperson Jose Emmanuel Reverente said yesterday.

The OPS is the first step in the NAIA receiving an upgrade to improve the passenger experience for Manila’s international gateway airport, members of the consortium said in separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.

Members of the consortium are the MVP Group’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Aboitiz Group’s Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group Inc., Lucio Tan-led Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., the Gotianuns’ Filinvest Development Corp. and the Gokongwei Group’s JG Summit Holdings Inc.

The unsolicited proposal, which was submitted to the DOTr and to the MIAA last Feb. 12, aims to transform NAIA into a regional airport hub and will expand its capacity to meet the anticipated growth in passenger traffic from the economies of the Philippines and the region.

Filipinos can expect a better airport experience as early as the third year from the time the consortium commences rehabilitation work, consortium members said in their disclosure.

“We remain focused on our commitment to deliver to our country a significantly improved NAIA and are prepared to start work immediately after the airport is turned over to the consortium,” Reverente said.

The STAR earlier broke the story that the MIAA approved the OPS during its board meeting a month ago.

The proposal involves expanding and interconnecting the existing terminals of NAIA, upgrading airside facilities, developing commercial facilities to increase airline and airport efficiencies, enhancing passenger comfort and experience, and elevating the status of NAIA as the country’s premier international gateway.

These improvements will be implemented by the consortium with minimal disruption to ongoing airport operations, its members said in the disclosure.

The NAIA project supports the government’s Build Build Build program with its plan to develop NAIA into a world-class facility and a regional air transport hub by upgrading its airside, landside and air navigation support — building on the gains already achieved by the DOTr in terms of improving the traffic of aircraft movements on its runways.

The other group which also submitted an unsolicited proposal for NAIA is infrastructure conglomerate Megawide and its partner, Bangalore-based GMR.

NAIA, which traces its history to as early as 1948, was built to handle 30 million passengers but is currently handling at least 40 million passengers.