Powerhouses fuse for NAIA rehab

Four consortia, composed of both local and international conglomerates, have submitted their bids to take over the P170.6-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport in a public-private partnership and rehabilitate the dated and congested air hub.

Four groups, or half the original number of eight that had expressed interest and bought bid documents, submitted their offers before the deadline of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 27 December.

The Bids and Awards Committee of the Department of Transportation or DoTr then opened the bids submitted by the Manila International Airport Consortium or MIAC, the Asian Airport Consortium, GMR Airports Consortium, and the SMC-SAP and Company Consortium.

The MIAC is composed of Gip Em Miac Pte. Ltd., Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Infracorp Dev't Inc., Asia's Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Dev't Corp., and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp. All are among the country's leading infrastructure builders.

GMR Consortium, on the other hand, is composed of India-based GMR Airports International B.V., Cavitex Holdings Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., and House of Investments Inc. which is wholly owned by Landev Corp.

Meanwhile, the Asian Infrastructure and Management Corp., Cosco Capital Inc. Philippine Skylanders Int'l Inc. and Pt Angkasa Pura II make up the Asian Airport Consortium.

Lastly, the SMC-SAP and Company Consortium is composed of diversified conglomerates San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics Inc., RLW Aviation Development Inc. and Incheon International Airport Corp., the developer of the world-class South Korean air hub.

Last November, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista disclosed that eight entities had signified their interest in taking over the NAIA rehabilitation.

The entities were Limak Group of Turkey, GMR Airports International, San Miguel Holdings Corp., Manila International Airport Consortium, Spark 888 Management, Asian Airport Consortium, Cengiz Insaat Sanayive Ticaret A.S. and Incheon Airport Corp.

15-year deal

Based on the initial Terms of Reference of the project, the winning concessionaire would need to sign a 15-year Rehabilitate-Operate-Expand-Transfer deal with the DoTr and the Manila International Airport Authority.

The winning consortium would also need to come up with an upfront payment of P30 billion to the government as a premium and another P2 billion in annuity payments. It is also required to remit a certain percentage of the revenues to the government.

The deal mandates the concessionaire to rehabilitate and upgrade the passenger terminals, commercial assets, and surface access facilities, and modernize the communications, navigation, and surveillance systems of the airport.

It is also required to provide a connection from NAIA Terminal 3 to the Metro Manila Subway, deploy buses for boarding transfers, and improve the baggage handling systems.

Once these are realized, the overall passenger experience at the NAIA is expected to improve, while the annual passenger capacity of the airport is projected to expand by at least 62 million from the current 32 million.