Aboitiz bolsters regional airport bids with Dublin gateway operator tie-up

The infrastructure arm of conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. that wants to establish itself as a major airport operator in the Philippines has tapped Irish airport company daa International as partner.

This comes on the heels of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc.’s unsolicited offers to operate, maintain and develop the Bohol-Panglao and Laguindingan Airports.

Daa International operates Ireland’s main gateway, Dublin Airport, which handles some 31 million passengers annually. It also runs Cork Airport, Ireland’s second-largest air gateway, as well as Terminal 5 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Our robust management and execution track record combined with daa International’s global perspective and technical expertise will ensure the transformation of these two airports into world-class regional gateways that we can truly be proud of,” Cosette V. Canilao, Aboitiz InfraCapital chief operating officer, said in a statement.

The Aboitiz firm had earlier won the Department of Transportation’s endorsement for separate offers for Bohol, a popular tourist destination in Visayas, and Laguindingan, a gateway to Northern Mindanao. It bagged an original proponent status for its P42.7-billion proposal for Laguindingan, which is located in Misamis Oriental, and its P27-billion offer for Bohol Airport.

AboitizInfraCapital was responding to the government’s renewed interest in unsolicited offers, a process requiring a Swiss challenge that allows other firms to submit bids against the original proposal.

The firm had anticipated that both gateways would require expansion amid the Duterte administration’s goal to lure 12 million foreign visitors to the Philippines by 2022. Last year, some 7.1 million foreign tourists were recorded.

According to AboitizInfraCapital, volume at the Laguindingan Airport hit two million in 2018 versus its design capacity of only 1.6 million passengers annually. The Bohol-Panglao International Airport is “bracing for a similar congestion level,” the company said.

Apart from regional airports, Aboitiz InfraCapital is also a member of the Naia Consortium, which also got first dibs to develop and operate Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.