AirAsia taps Indonesian firm in bid for Clark project

Malaysian budget carrier Air Asia is teaming up with Indonesia’s Perum Angkasa Pura in a bid for the operations and maintenance of Clark International Airport in Pampanga province, a potential alternative to Manila’s congested air gateway.

Dexter Comendador, CEO of Philippines Air Asia, disclosed the partnership with the state-run airport operator last week, saying they remained bullish on Clark Airport’s growth prospects.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority earlier this year launched the 25-year Clark Airport O&M project. The bid submission deadline, initially set on July 20, 2018, has been moved several times as bidders sought extra time. The latest extension brought the bid submission deadline to Sept. 20 this year.

The Clark Airport expansion and O&M deal is the Duterte administration’s first hybrid Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project. The scheme mainly involved separating the expansion of the airport and the O&M into two distinct contracts.

The government last December awarded a contract to Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure for the construction of a new passenger terminal in Clark Airport. The project, to be financed by the BCDA, will increase its current capacity of four million passengers annually to 12 million passengers by 2020.

Comendador said Clark Airport was attractive mainly because it was an existing facility where traffic was steadily growing.