DOTr to revive NAIA privatization

Already, the agency plans to formulate the terms of reference (TOR) for auctioning off the rehabilitation of the airport, with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), according to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista.

The past administration sought to privatize NAIA’s rehabilitation but failed.

At the time, the project attracted the interest of two consortia – the NAIA Consortium, composed of the country’s biggest conglomerates, and the Megawide Construction Corp. and India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd. Consortium, which built the new Mactan terminal facility.

The NAIA Consortium, composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc., proposed to rehabilitate the NAIA for P102 billion.

However, the project did not materialize because the consortium was not confident about the project financing.

For its part, the Megawide-GMR consortium also submitted a $3 billion proposal to rehabilitate and upgrade NAIA, with a contract period of 18 years. However, the government revoked the original proponent status granted to the consortium.

Rehabilitating the NAIA will decongest the country’s main gateway and resolve capacity constraints by reconfiguring and renovating its facilities.

The project will enable the airport to meet the growing domestic as well as international passenger demand.