North Luzon Airport consortium set to bag Clark O&M contract

MANILA, Philippines — The North Luzon Airport Consortium, whose members are Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. and Changi Airport Philippines Pte. Ltd., is poised to bag the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract of the Clark International Airport.

“The bids have been opened already and there is a winner. The group of Changi Airport,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said yesterday, referring to the North Luzon Airport Consortium.

“It will be submitted to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) on Wednesday,” Tugade said.

Two groups submitted bid documents last Nov. 9 for the O&M of the Clark International Airport, the other being X-Droid, which is composed of Indonesia’s Angkasa Pura II, Globalport 900, Mazy Capital and Desco.

The X-Droid group has reportedly been disqualified, prompting the need for the NEDA-ICC’s nod before the contract gets awarded.

State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said it would issue an official statement once the bidding process is completed.

The project involves a 25-year concession to operate Clark airport’s existing terminal building, as well as the new terminal facility to be constructed by the group of Megawide-GMR which bagged the engineering, procurement and construction contract in December last year.

Submission of bids for the project has faced various delays as interested bidders requested for extensions.

Bid submission for the project was originally scheduled on July 20 and the target awarding of O&M contract was on Aug. 30.

The BCDA earlier said nine firms had purchased bid documents for the Clark International Airport O&M contract including Metro Pacific Investments Corp., San Miguel Holdings Corp., Megawide-GMR Consortium, Filinvest Development Corp., AirAsia Group, Prime Assets Venture, Central Luzon Infrastructure Consultancy Inc. Consortium, GVK Airport Developers Ltd. and Groupe ADP.

The Clark International Airport is set to be the next premier gateway to Asia and will open in the first half of 2020.The airport’s new terminal building is the first of the Duterte administration’s hybrid infrastructure projects, and complements other high-impact legacy projects in Central Luzon such as New Clark City and the Subic-Clark Railway.