7 groups eye Mactan-Cebu airport project

Local conglomerates, airlines and airport operators, including those associated with world-class facilities in Singapore and South Korea, are keen on participating in the government’s first airport public-private partnership project to be rolled out—the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

The P17.5-billion project to expand, rehabilitate and operate Cebu’s main air terminal drew seven business groups and their respective foreign operating partners during the opening of prequalifying documents at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) headquarters on Monday.

These are MPIC-JGS consortium, AAA Airport Partners, Filinvest-CAI consortium, San Miguel-Incheon Airport consortium, First Philippine Airports, Premier Airport group and GMR Megawide consortium.

Behind those firms are some of the country’s most prominent business names, among them Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. with Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings for MPIC-JGS; Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures for AAA; Henry Sy’s SM Group for Premier Airport; and the Lopez Group for First Philippine Airports.

The country’s biggest airline operators were well-represented after the DOTC early this year relaxed the guidelines previously banning their participation along with their affiliates. JG Summit owns Cebu Pacific while SMC owns flag carrier Philippine Airlines.

Each group also tapped a foreign airport operator as the DOTC had previously noted the country’s shortcomings and lack of expertise in this area.

To meet the operations and management experience requirement, MPIC-JGS tapped Aeroports de Lyon; AAA partnered with Houston Airport System; Filinvest-CAI tapped Singapore’s Changi Airport Saudi Ltd.; San Miguel tapped Incheon International Airport Corp.; First Holdings tapped Wellington International Airport Ltd., NZ Airports Ltd. and Infantil Ltd.; Premier Airport tapped Flughafen Zurich AG; and GMR-Megawide partnered with Delhi International Airport and GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.

“This is merely a first step. We still need 20 days to review and evaluate the documents,” DOTC Undersecretary Jose Lotilla said. “So on May 17 we will announce the consortiums prequalified for this.”

Lotilla declined to comment on the new time frame for the bidding process. Originally, the DOTC sought to hold the financial and technical bids in August with awarding seen by September.

The expansion of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which is running beyond normal capacity, calls for the construction of a new world-class international passenger terminal building with a capacity of about eight million passengers a year. The facility has an annual capacity of 4.5 million passengers but it booked around 6.2 million in 2011.

The contract also includes the renovation and expansion of the existing terminal, installation of all the required equipment and the operation of both new and existing facilities for 20 years.