DOTr ready to turn over NAIA to SMC on Sept. 14

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said Wednesday it is set to hand over the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to the San Miguel Group by Sept. 14, 2024.

“We will hand over the airport to New NAIA Infra Corp. by Sept. 14,” DOTr Undersecretary for planning and project development Timothy John Batan said during the post-SONA discussions.

NNIC is composed of San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics Inc., RLW Aviation Development Inc. and Incheon International Airport Corp.

Batan said the government expects to increase the passenger capacity of the airport from 35 million to 62 million once the private concessionaire starts the expansion of the airport.

The runway capacity will also increase up to 48 movements per hour.

“In the first six years of the concession, we are expecting our concessionaire to put in an estimated P88 billion investment into NAIA,” Batan said.

He said this is higher than the average annual capital outlay of the government in NAIA of P2 billion from 2010 to 2023.

He said that besides convenience to passengers, the government expects to generate P900 billion in revenues in the course of its entire 25-year concession period, inclusive of the P30 billion upfront payment, P2 billion annual payment and 82 percent government revenue share.

NNIC, formerly SMC SAP & Co. Consortium, signed the P170.6-billion contract in March 2024 to operate, maintain and upgrade NAIA for 15 years, extendible for another 10 years.

The NAIA project involves capital investment to improve the airport’s facilities to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other internationally-accepted standards.

The concessionaire will be responsible for both landside and airside operations of the NAIA.

It will be required to undertake works to enhance the compliance, safety and security of the airport, optimize and boost airport capacity to cater to the increasing air traffic, in accordance with objective parameters to be provided in detail in the concession agreement.