NAIA rehab may start by H1 2020

MANILA, Philippines — The long-awaited rehabilitation of the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) could finally start within the first half of next year, kicking off an initial four-year, three-phased upgrade seen to elevate the status and operations of the country’s main international gateway.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the NAIA Consortium, which is composed of seven of the country’s largest conglomerates, is likely to win approval for its P102-billion unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate, upgrade, expand, operate and maintain the aging NAIA for 15 years by not later than the first quarter of next year.
“What I want is for everything (the Swiss challenge and award) to be completed by the end of the year, or up to the first quarter (2020) that is still okay,” Tugade said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Ernesto Pernia earlier said the NAIA Consortium’s unsolicited proposal would be taken up in the next Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) meeting scheduled this month.

Once given the endorsement by the ICC, the proposal will then have to secure one last approval from the NEDA board, which is chaired by President Duterte, before it can proceed to the Swiss challenge process.

Having been awarded with the original proponent status, the consortium will have the right to match better offers submitted by other proponents once a Swiss

“We have submitted it to the NEDA. How fast it will go with NEDA, I cannot dictate. But I believe all the departments right now are working together,” Tugade said.

The NAIA Consortium is composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital, AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

Under its revised proposal, the consortium intends to undertake in three phases upgrades and rehabilitation works at the gateway during the first four years upon getting clearance to start work.

The consortium in September last year said it targets to increase NAIA’s capacity to 47 million by 2020 and to 65 million by 2022, should they get clearance to start work late that year.