A group of infrastructure and property development firms in the Philippines are forming a consortium to rehabilitate, operate, and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) through an unsolicited proposal to be submitted to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The companies are Metro Pacific Investments Corp (MPIC), Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp, Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp, Filinvest Development Corp, and JG Summit Holdings Inc.
The terms of the memorandum of understanding or framework of the consortium are still under negotiation, the companies said in separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The consortium will work with foreign technical partners that have world-class track records in airport operations to improve, upgrade, and enhance the operational efficiencies of NAIA, which has been operating over capacity for years now.
“The consortium believes that NAIA will continue to be a strategic gateway and a key hub of airline operations for the Philippines,” it said.
With proper upgrades and strategic improvements, MPIC said, NAIA can easily accommodate an additional 11 million passengers annually from the current 39.5 million passengers, and can increase its hourly aircraft movements from 40 to 48.
The unsolicited proposal is intended to help accelerate the government’s Build Build Build Infrastructure program.
“Augmenting NAIA’s capacity is the quickest way to address airport congestion while other airports are being developed outside Metro Manila. The consortium believes that this approach promotes greater economic benefit and sustainability for the whole country,” the consortium said.
It noted that both 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. Megacities that benefit from a two-airport set-up include Tokyo (Haneda and Narita) and London (Gatwick and Heathrow),” the group said.
Aside from the consortium’s proposal, Philippine Airlines also revived an earlier proposal to build a new annex building at NAIA Terminal 2, where its flights are exclusively housed.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
