Start of NAIA's privatized operations seen Sept. 11, 2024

The Department of Transportation is anticipating that the winning private group will begin its operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) by September next year under its timeline for the P170.6-billion NAIA Public-Private Partnership project.

Transportation Undersecretary for Planning and Project Development Timothy John Batan, who chairs the Pre-qualification Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) for the project, bared the NAIA PPP initiative timeline during the opening of bids on December 27.

Based on the DOTr’s timeline, Batan said the start date of NAIA’s operations and maintenance by the winning bidder would be Sept. 11, 2024.

Four consortia submitted bid documents. These are the Manila International Airport Consortium, Asian Airport Consortium, GMR Airports Consortium, and SMC-SAP & Company Consortium.

The documents submitted by the four groups, composed of local and foreign conglomerates, were deemed complete and would now be subjected to further detailed evaluation as well as thorough assessment of the bidders’ technical and financial capabilities to undertake the project.

Batan said the PBAC will undertake the detailed evaluation of the qualification documents for a period of no longer than 10 days from the bid submission date on December 27.

“The PBAC reserves the right to seek clarification from any bidder on the form and contents of the qualification documents. The PBAC shall make all requests for clarification in writing. The 10th day of evaluation is on Jan. 6, 2024. So we will complete the detailed evaluation,” he said.

“Then we have five days to announce the results of the detailed qualification documents evaluation and to announce the opening date of the technical proposals of the qualified bidders. So that announcement will be made in a bid bulletin by Jan. 11, 2024,” he added.

The DOTr official said the opening of technical proposals of the bidders is targeted on Jan. 15, 2024.

“And we will be inviting all of the bidders to attend and witness the opening of the technical proposals. Following that, we will have 20 days to do the evaluation of the technical proposals. So that is from January 15 to Feb. 4, 2024,” Batan said.

“On February 5, we will be announcing the technical proposals that pass the technical evaluation. And we will also announce the opening date for the financial proposals which is currently scheduled on February 7, tentatively,” he added.

The results of the financial evaluation would be on Feb. 14, 2024, after which the issue of the notice of award will proceed on Feb. 15, 2024.

“On March 6, will be the deadline for post-award requirements submission by the winning bidder,” the DOTr official said.

“By March 12, the PBAC will check compliance of the submitted post-award requirements,” Batan said.

The Transportation official disclosed that the signing of the concession agreement with the winning bidder is targeted to be on Mar. 15, 2024.

For the signing of the concession agreement, Batan said the winning bidder has 180 days to complete the conditions set in the contract before it can start to operate NAIA.

“O&M (operations and maintenance) start date… and that is September 11,” he said.

“So that is the schedule that we are working on for the rest of the proceedings of the bids evaluation,” he added.

The winning consortium would need to make an upfront payment of P30 billion to the government and another P2 billion in annuity payments. It will operate NAIA under a 15-year Rehabilitate-Operate-Expand-Transfer concession deal, with an option for a 10-year extension.

The DOTr earlier said the bidder that offers the biggest share of their revenue from managing NAIA would win the project, with the concession agreement indicating a filed P2-billion annuity payment. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News