MANILA – A company and subsidiaries of six large conglomerates in the country have agreed to form a consortium to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) through an unsolicited proposal with a goal to help accelerate the government’s infrastructure program.
The consortium, composed of Aboitiz Infra Capital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Alliance Global Group, Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. (AEDC), Filinvest Development Corporation, JG Summit Holdings, Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, plans to submit its unsolicited proposal to the Department of Transportation.
“Augmenting NAIA’s capacity is the quickest way to address airport congestion while other airports are being developed outside Metro Manila,” they said in separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The consortium believes this approach promotes greater economic benefit and sustainability for the whole country.
Given proper upgrades and strategic improvements, NAIA can easily accommodate an additional 11 million passengers annually from the current 39.5 million passengers.
It can also increase its hourly aircraft landing and take-off movements from 40 to 48 movements per hour.
The consortium will work with foreign technical partners with proven world class track records and experiences in airport operations to improve, upgrade and enhance the operational efficiencies of NAIA covering both landside and airside facilities.
Numerous foreign and local experts, they said in a joint press statement, have highlighted the advantage of keeping an airport within city limits. Like other major cities in the world, experts recommend an in-city airport and another one outside the metropolis to complement it. Megacities that benefit from a two-airport set-up include Tokyo (Haneda and Narita) and London (Gatwick and Heathrow).
Given proper upgrades and strategic improvements, NAIA can easily accommodate an additional 11 million passengers annually from the current 39.5M passengers, and can increase its hourly aircraft movements (landing and take-off) from 40 movements per hour to 48 movements per hour, the proponents argued.
The unsolicited proposal is intended to help accelerate the government’s “Build Build Build” program, the statement added. “Augmenting NAIA’s capacity is the quickest way to address airport congestion while other airports are being developed outside Metro Manila. The consortium believes that this approach promotesgreater economic benefit and sustainability for the whole country.”
