MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATED WITH PHOTO FROM BRIEFING) Seven of the country’s largest conglomerates have formed a “superconsortium” and are submitting an unsolicited proposal to the Department of Transportation on Tuesday, February 13, to turn the Ninoy Aquino International Airport into a “regional hub.”
Consortium members Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Alliance Global Group Inc., AEDC, Filinvest Development Corporation, JG Summit Holdings, Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, who say they have a combined capitalization of more than P2.2 trillion, said the transformed NAIA would have the capacity to meet the country and region’s expected growth in passenger traffic.
The consortium said they expect to spend up to P350 billion over the life of the project.
Jose Manuel Reverente, vice president of Aboitiz Capital, said: “The current capacity, design capacity of terminals in NAIA is about 31 million (passengers). We expect to grow that to about 65 million. In 48 months so many changes can happen.”
He added that they also plan to expand Terminals 2 and 3 aside from improving passenger experience.
Changi Airports International Pte. Ltd. will be providing technical support in master planning, operations optimization and commercial development.
The project is divided into two phases. The first involves the improvement and expansion of existing terminals, the second, the development of an additional runway, taxiways, passenger terminals and associated support infrastructure.
The additional runway is expected to bring NAIA’s potential capacity up to 100 million passengers per year.
The proposal includes a people mover linking all three terminals and connecting NAIA to the existing mass transport system in Metro Manila.
“Through this proposal, we envision a new NAIA: a fully-integrated premier gateway that we Filipinos can truly be proud of, backed by the know-how of an experienced technical partner and the strong synergy of seven homegrown teams,” Reverente, who is also the consortium’s spokesman, said.
“Given the full support and commitment of each of the seven consortium members and the existing infrastructure already in place, the project implementation can be expedited. Immediate enhancements and capacity upgrades can be expected within a couple of years, followed by further expansion to be completed shortly after,” he added.
Reverente also said they are open to proposals from more conglomerates as they await government’s approval of their proposal.
