THE Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has granted Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the redevelopment of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to the consortium led by Philippine engineering and infrastructure conglomerate Megawide Construction Corp. (Megawide) with its operating partner, GMR.
The granting of the OPS was dated July 15, 2020.
“The decongestion and rehabilitation of NAIA is vital to sustainably supporting the air traffic needs of our National Capital Region. Megawide has always been supportive of our government’s vision to improve and modernize the airport infrastructure in the Philippines and we are committed to bringing our experience in airport operations and management, and engineering excellence to the country’s main gateway,” said Louie Ferrer, Megawide managing director for transportation.
MCIA
The consortium of Megawide is the same entity behind the transformation of the multi-awarded Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), the country’s second largest airport.
In 2018, CAPA-Center for Aviation, the world’s leading airport and aviation think tank, named MCIA as Airport of the Year. Since the handover of operations in November 2014, passenger volume steadily increased from 4.5 million per year to 12.7 million in 2019.
“Our team has transformed MCIA as primarily the country’s top tourism gateway. We aim to contribute our experience in airport development and value engineering to the long awaited resurgence of NAIA,” said Ferrer.
“We believe in the potential of NAIA, and we see its vital role in our economy’s recovery and continuing development. As our main gateway, it is a symbol of our Philippine identity, and its rehabilitation will be a big step toward achieving our vision of a First-World Philippines,” he continued.
Ferrer mentioned that the Megawide-led consortium is now awaiting the next steps from the government.
The consortium submitted its proposal for the rehabilitation of NAIA on March 1, 2018 to redevelop and rehabilitate the airport.
With OPS for the NAIA project, Megawide and GMR have the right to match any other bid in a Swiss challenge, a procurement process that invites other companies to bid for the project as mandated under the Build Operate Transfer Law.
Termination
The MIAA recently terminated talks with the NAIA Consortium after the consortium said it “can only move forward with the project under the options it has proposed.”
The consortium was composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. of the Aboitiz Group, AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. of the Ayala Group, Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. of LT Group, Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc. Metro Pacific Investments Corp. had pulled out from the group.(PR, SUNSTAR PHILIPPINES)