Filinvest-Changi team upbeat on Mactan project

Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp. is planning to transform the Mactan-Cebu International Airport into a “world-class” air gateway via partnership with Singapore’s Changi Airport Group, according to a statement issued by the company.

Filinvest, which made its name in the property sector and is now diversifying into infrastructure, is among several Philippine conglomerates that have teamed up with prominent airport operators to bid for the P17.5-billion contract to rehabilitate, expand and operate the Mactan-Cebu airport.

The Filinvest-Changi Airport consortium is among the seven that submitted prequalification documents for the airport project.

The others are San Miguel Corp., which partnered with South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp.; the tandem between Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, which tapped Houston Airport System; and Henry Sy’s SM Group, whose consortium, Premier Airport, partnered with operator Flughafen Zurich AG.

The expansion of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which is currently 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 a capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year but it booked about 6.2 million in 2011.

The Department of Transportation and Communications received the prequalification documents on April 22 and will announce the list of qualified bidders by May 17.—Miguel R. Camus