SMC submits proposal for $10-B new airport

MANILA, Philippines - Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) submitted yesterday to President Aquino a proposal to build a new $10-billion airport that would replace the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The planned airport will be situated in the almost 800-hectare property of CyberBay Corp. along the Manila-Cavite coastal road, SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said.

SMC plans to build a new international gateway that will have four runways and higher passenger capacity compared to NAIA’s single runway situated in a 400-hectare property in Pasay City.

The project will be offered to the government under a build-operate-transfer scheme where ownership will be turned over to the state after 25 years, SMC said.

SMC has a 49 percent stake in the country’s national carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. together with taipan Lucio Tan, who owns 51 percent.

The diversified conglomerate announced plans to put up an international airport early last year. The project proposal was supposed to be presented to President Aquino in February last year.

However, SMC had postponed the presentation of the proposed international gateway due to unclear policy from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

The government has allocated P1.3 billion for the rehabilitation of NAIA Terminal 1 being done by DM Consunji Inc. and another P1.9 billion for the retrofitting of NAIA Terminal 3 by Takenaka Corp. of Japan.

The rehabilitation of NAIA is scheduled to be completed in time for the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2015.

NAIA 1 is operating beyond its capacity of 4.5 million passengers as it currently accommodates more than eight million passengers a year.

The retrofitting of NAIA 3, which is servicing about half of its total capacity of 13 million passengers yearly, will help accommodate the excess passengers from NAIA 1.

Data from the Manila International Airport Authority showed that the number of domestic and international passengers served by NAIA increased to 32.865 million last year from 31.877 million in 2012.