Momberger Airport Information
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Efforts to privatize Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have stopped, ending hopes for significant upgrades and expansion during the pandemic-induced slump in air travel. The roughly P100-billion NAIA rehabilitation project fell victim to delays due to stringent government requirements and more recently, political opposition. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said that efforts to privatize Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have stopped. The roughly USD 1.98-billion NAIA rehabilitation project fell victim to delays due to stringent government requirements and more recently, political opposition. It was launched during President Duterte’s term to address worsening congestion in NAIA and in response to the administration’s decision to scrap the NAIA development public private partnership project under President Benigno Aquino III. Tugade said the project was no longer pushing through and the government would upgrade the country’s main gateway on its own. “Notwithstanding the stoppage of the unsolicited proposal on the improvements of NAIA, transformation continues to go on and on as we speak,” Tugade said during a recent government infrastructure briefing. Tugade pointed to Department of Transportation projects such as repairs at NAIA’s runways and taxiways, however, the private sector rehabilitation plan was more significant in scope. The latest offer from Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure, the group behind the Mactan Cebu International Airport, included investments to expand both passenger capacity and flights apart from an elevated railway system linking NAIA’s terminals. The 25-year proposal was eventually rejected last December by the board of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), which cited a narrow and rarely used definition of financial capacity to disqualify Megawide. Waiting in line after Megawide-GMR were Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. and food, drinks, and infrastructure conglomerate San Miguel Corp. The private sector’s push to upgrade NAIA started in 2018 when the group of conglomerates known as NAIA Consortium submitted its proposal to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA). Those negotiations lasted over two years and collapsed in July 2020 when the consortium withdrew during the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure to rehabilitate NAIA leaves the gateway vulnerable to changes in government policy under a future administration. San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang said the airport was better off being closed after his USD 14,57-billion airport city in Bulacan province, northwest of Manila, is finished. SMC itself has submitted a 10-year proposal to operate and maintain NAIA without any major redevelopment. #1151.1
