Tycoons form new super consortium to pitch P100-B NAIA rehab

MANILA, Philippines — Six Philippine companies and a US-based infrastructure investment firm joined forces on Thursday to pitch a proposal to the Marcos Jr. administration to rehabilitate the overstretched Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The unsolicited proposal came from the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC). This partnership saw Alliance Global Group Inc., Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp, Infracorp Development, Inc., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp. team up with US-based Global Infrastructure Partners. 

Initial details showed that the P100 billion proposal included an upfront payment to the national government, including investments in new facilities and technology.

The announcement on Thursday came from a statement released by Alliance Global.

There had been attempts during the Duterte administration to give the country's premier gateway a multi-billion peso makeover. At the time, five of the six companies in the new NAIA consortium were members of an old group that submitted an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate NAIA.

But in 2020, the Duterte government terminated talks with the previous consortium after authorities rejected the companies' proposed revisions to their P102-billion plan meant to ensure the project would remain viable despite the "lasting" impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Megawide Construction Corp. and its Indian partner, GMR, later took over the project. But the duo, which has a record of upgrading airports, eventually lost its original proponent status as its P109-billion proposal was deemed too big for Megawide to absorb at the time.

'Critical development'

“We are ready to put our combined resources forward in partnering with the Government on this massive undertaking,” said Kevin L. Tan, CEO at Alliance Global and director of the newly-formed MIAC.

Through this investment, the MIAC projects that NAIA will be able to serve up to 62.5 million passengers per annum by 2028. If realized, this would double its current operating capacity. 

“As the only large-scale operating gateway airport to the Philipines, the modernisation and long-term sustainability of NAIA is a critical development priority for both the country’s public and private sectors,” Tan added.

Last January, NAIA was hit by an air traffic system failure that took the entire country’s airspace offline, which affected some 56,000 passengers.