The Department of Transportation (DOTr) yesterday started the evaluation of four bidders’ technical bids for the P170.6-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) modernization project, as it is set to declare a winner next month.
DOTr’s pre-qualification bids and awards committee opened the technical bids and completed the preliminary evaluation of the technical proposal of four bidders on January 15.
After that, a detailed technical bid evaluation will be conducted until February 4, or no longer than 20 days, pursuant to the instruction to the bidders announced last December 29, said Timothy John Batan, DOTr undersecretary for planning.
“The announcement of the compliant technical bid is on Feb. 5, 2024,” Batan said.
The financial bid of those which will be declared technically qualified will be opened on February 8. On February 14, DOTr will announce the results of the financial evaluation and the winning bidder.
The issuance of the notice of award is on February 15, and the contract signing with the winning bidder is set for March 15, added Batan.
Four private consortia submitted bids.
One is the Manila International Airport Consortium that includes conglomerates Aboitiz InfraCapital, Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global-Infracorp, Filinvest and JG Summit Holdings Inc.
Another contender is Asian Airport Consortium which is composed of Asian Infrastructure and Management Corp., Cosco Capital Inc., Philippine Skylanders Inc. and PT Angkasa Pura II.
GMR Airports Consortium, which comprises GMR Airports International B.V., Cavitex Holdings Inc. and House of Investments Inc., also joined the bidding.
The other bidder is SMC SAP Company Consortium, which is composed of San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics Inc., RLW Aviation Development Inc. and Incheon International Airport Corp.
Under the NAIA public-private partnership concession agreement, the bidder that will submit the highest percentage of revenue share will be declared as the winner.
That is on top of the P30-billion upfront payment and P2-billion fixed annual payment to the government over the 15-year concession period.
The concession period could be extended for another 10 years which will be decided on the eighth year of operation, based on compliance with the key performance indicators.
As of the end of December 2023, Manila International Airport Authority reported that NAIA’s passenger volume reached 45.4 million, comprising 24.9 million domestic and 20.5 million international travelers.
That is 47 percent more than the 30.9 million passengers recorded in the prior year and accounts for 95 percent of the 47.7 million passengers reported in 2019.
NAIA also recorded a total of 279,953 flights in 2023 which is a 26 percent increase from the 221,595 flights logged in 2022, and up by 3 percent from the 271,535 flights registered in 2019.
