Gov’t still keen on upgrading, privatizing regional airports

The government is updating studies on its plan to modernize and eventually privatize a set of provincial airports, an official of the Department of Transportation said.

Manuel Antonio L. Tamayo, Undersecretary for aviation at the DOTr, said the administration remained keen on upgrading the Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, Laguindingan and New Bohol gateways.

The project has stalled since the Duterte administration took over. First, when it decided to bid out the development, operations and maintenance contracts of the airports individually instead of putting them in bundles under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme and then when it scrapped the PPP process altogether.

The DOTr said the projects would now be funded not by the private sector but either with the government’s funds or loans from other countries.

In an interview this week, Tamayo said the new studies were still underway.

“We are doing again the feasibility studies,” Tamayo said, saying the current studies were several years old. “We have to review it and update it.”

The original PPP project was among those deemed most ripe for an auction.

However, the previous administration decided to push back the bidding until after a new President was elected in 2016. This was because the bidding date fell too close to the date of the national elections.

Five groups were prequalified under the original process. These were Metro Pacific Investments Corp.; San Miguel Corp. with South Korea’s Incheon Airport; Aboitiz Equity Ventures with VINCI Airports; Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure, and the Filinvest Group with Japan’s Sojitz and Jatco.

And while questions were raised on the government’s decision to unbundle the projects, several of these players said they would still consider O&M deals once these were auctioned off.

The regional airports project would have been the second airport PPP after the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which was bagged by Megawide and GMR in 2014.

In yet another statement of the private sector’s interest in airports, a “super consortium” involving seven conglomerates submitted this week a P350-billion proposal to upgrade, operate and maintain Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the country’s busiest air gateway.

The super consortium is composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., the Ayala Group’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Andrew Tan-led Alliance Global Group Inc., Lucio Tan-led Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp., Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific.

The consortium has enlisted the help of Changi Airport Consultants Pte. Ltd.