SCUTTLEBUTT

New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. (NNIC), San Miguel Corp.’s airport concessionaire, reported remitting P57 billion to the government from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) operations, which does not reflect efficiency in operations.

The Marcos Jr. administration and Ramon Ang are selling this as a success story, but in truth, the P57 billion did not come from SMC’s pocket. A consumer group said this came from the pockets of millions of ordinary passengers now paying far higher fees to use what had been a publicly operated airport.

 Every peso remitted to the government was collected from the people through the steep increases in terminal and airline fees.

Since NNIC took over NAIA in September 2024, airport fees have surged across the board.

Passenger terminal fees are up by 73 percent for international and 95 percent for domestic flights.

Landing, parking, and tacking fees for aircraft are up by as much as 1,400 percent, costs that the airlines pass on to their passengers.

Rental rates for commercial spaces nearly doubled, pushing the cost of food and services inside NAIA higher than ever, according to an NNIC critic. 

These hikes have hit over 50 million passengers. NNIC has earned at least P12 billion from terminal fees alone, not counting its growing take from airline and commercial tenants. 

Instead of revealing how much it has made, Ang highlights how much has been “remitted” to the government, masking the fact that the public is being squeezed to fund both the government’s take and NNIC’s profit.

When the NAIA was publicly managed by the Manila International Airport Authority, the law required that it charge “reasonable” rates. 

Under privatization, the operator’s interest is to maximize its profit. This setup, where the government surrenders control and consumers have to pay more so the corporation can rake in excessive profits, is a gross misuse of public authority for private gain. In short, it is corruption at play on a grand scale.

The NAIA’s privatization is not reform. It is turning over a public utility to a private firm to profit from, cloaked in the language of modernization.