Seven of the country’s top conglomerates have formalized their bid to rehabilitate, operate, and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., the Ayala group’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group, Inc., Lucio Tan’s Asia’s Emerging Dragons Corp., the Gotianun’s Filinvest Development Corp., the Gokongwei’s JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said the NAIA will “continue to be a strategic gateway” and a “key hub of airline operations for many more years.”
“The consortium will work with foreign technical partners with proven world class track records and experiences in airport operations to improve, upgrade, and enhance the operational efficiencies of NAIA covering both landside and airside facilities,” it said.
Numerous foreign and local experts have highlighted the advantage of keeping an airport within city limits
“Numerous foreign and local experts have highlighted the advantage of keeping an airport within city limits. Like other major cities in the world, experts recommend an in-city airport and another one outside the metropolis to complement it,” the consortium added.
The consortium took note of “megacities that benefit from a two-airport set-up include Tokyo (Haneda and Narita) and London (Gatwick and Heathrow).”
The group said given “proper upgrades and strategic improvements,” NAIA can easily accommodate an additional 11 million passengers annually from the current 39.5M passengers, and can increase its hourly aircraft movements (landing and take-off) from 40 movements per hour to 48 movements per hour.
“The unsolicited proposal is intended to help accelerate the government’s ‘Build Build Build’ program. Augmenting NAIA’s capacity is the quickest way to address airport congestion while other airports are being developed outside Metro Manila,” it added. .
The consortium believes that “this approach promotes greater economic benefit and sustainability for the whole country.” The terms of the Memorandum of Understanding or framework of the consortium are still under negotiation. (R. Castro, Malaya)