6 groups keen on PPP airport bundles

THE ROSTER of interested bidders for a government-led auction of provincial airport operations and expansion contracts is growing, information posted on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Center’s website showed on Friday.

The PPP Center, the agency tasked with coordinating big ticket infrastructure projects requiring private sector participation, said at least six groups have so far bought bid documents ahead of the submission of qualification documents on July 27, 2015—a deadline that has been moved several times.

The groups are the tandem between Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, San Miguel Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Philippine Skylanders Inc. and Union Equities, the PPP Center said.

The project, which involves the auction of operations and maintenance (O&M), as well as the expansion of the Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo, Davao, Laguindingan, and New Bohol, is being implemented by the Department of Transportation and Communications. The projects have a total estimated cost of P108.19 billion, or $2.4 billion, the PPP Center said.

This is the second airport PPP deal after the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport was rolled out and eventually awarded in 2014 to the Megawide-GMR consortium.

The PPP Center said the airports will be bid out in bundles with the Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo, comprising the first bundle and the Davao, Laguindingan, and New Bohol (Panglao) airports as part of a separate bundle.

“These PPP projects involve the development, O&M of the five regional airports,” the PPP Center said.

“The private partner will provide additional facilities and other necessary improvements to enhance passenger safety, security, access, passenger and cargo movement efficiency, and operational efficiency as well as actively market the airports in order to develop direct international passenger traffic and diversify revenue sources,” it added.

Apart from this project, the DOTC had said it is studying the possible operations and maintenance auction of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the country’s busiest air gateway. This comes amid the broader goal to replace Naia, which suffers from heavy congestion, with a new international gateway. The DOTC said the new airport would likely be located in Sangley Point, Cavite.

In a May 2015 report, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) backed the construction of a new air international gateway as it highlighted capacity constraints at Naia’s four passenger terminals, which are already serving beyond their “design capacity” of 31 million passengers annually.

“Iata’s long term view of an infrastructure solution for the Metro Manila region is the development of a new greenfield airport with sufficient capacity to meet Manila’s aviation needs that is situated no greater than 50 kilometers from the city center,” Iata said.

“This would make Manila a bona fide contender for the leading aviation hub in the region and meet its obligation to be the gateway for tourism and business into the Philippines,” it added.