Group with biggest revenue share offer will bag NAIA ops — DOTr

The group or bidder that offers the biggest share of their revenue from managing the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to the government will bag the contract to operate and maintain the country’s main gateway, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said Friday.

During the pre-bid conference for the P170.6-billion NAIA Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, the Department of Transportation disclosed that there are now six groups that have bought bid documents.

The six groups are the following:

- GMR Airports International
- San Miguel Holdings Corp.
- Manila International Airport Consortium
- Spark 888 Management
- Asian Airport Consortium
- Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S

Under the draft concession agreement for the project, the winning bidder must settle an upfront payment of P30 billion to the government following the awarding of the contract, remit annually a fixed P2-billion annuity payment, and share with the government a certain percentage of their revenues.

Bautista said the “revenue sharing” offer would be the main consideration in deciding who would win the NAIA PPP project.

“Because we will see to it that all those we will consider are qualified… based on technical requirements,” the Transportation chief said.

“In the end, ang magiging determination is the sharing [of] revenue… But, of course, we want them to share with us their plans, their vision,” he added. 

The Transportation chief was further asked if the winning bidder would be the one who will offer the biggest revenue share to the government.

Bautista said, “Yes.”

In June, the DOTr and Manila International Airport Authority submitted a joint proposal to the National Economic and Development Authority Board seeking a private concessionaire to invest in modern air traffic control equipment, rehabilitate runways and taxiways, and improve existing terminal facilities for a period of 15 years.

The DOTr also expressed intent to lengthen the concession period for another 10 years if the completion and start of operations of the two new airports—Bulacan Airport and Sangley International Airport—are delayed.

During the pre-bid conference, Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said that the option to extend the concession period by another 10 years would be considered as long as the operator is “not in flagrant violation of the concession agreement,” which will be determined by certain key performance indicators such as the processing time for check-in, immigration, and security checks.

Prospective bidders have until December 27, 2023, to submit their bids.

Bautista said the winning bidder will be determined “a month after” the deadline.

Nevertheless, the DOTr is open to extending the deadline.

“We are open to suggestions and recommendations from the bidders. We want to know what their concerns are and how we can help them meet the deadline of December 27. We are happy to listen to their suggestions and recommendations,” Bautista said. 

In late August, the DOTr opened the NAIA privatization project for potential bidders as it invited interested firms to qualify and bid for the contract to rehabilitate, operate, optimize, and maintain the country’s main gateway through a Rehabilitate-Operate-Expand-Transfer arrangement.

The competitive bidding process for the potential party who will bag the contract to operate NAIA is in accordance with Republic Act 6957, as amended by Republic Act 7718, otherwise known as the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law (BOT Law) and its Revised 2022 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), according to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.

The P170.6-billion NAIA PPP Project will cover all facilities of the country's main gateway, including its runways, four terminals, and associated facilities.

The project is expected to improve the overall passenger experience and increase the current annual passenger capacity of NAIA to at least 62 million from the current 32 million, as well as increase air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour.

The goal of the project is to address longstanding issues at NAIA, such as the inadequate capacity of passenger terminal buildings and restricted aircraft movement. — VBL, GMA Integrated News