P141B NEEDED FOR NAIA UPGRADE, SAYS TRANSPORT OFFICIAL

ROUGHLY P141 billion is needed to upgrade and fully develop the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

This is included in the terms and conditions that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) prepared and submitted to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) for the proposed privatization of NAIA, said Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation Airports Roberto Lim during a public briefing on Thursday.

Lim said this was a huge responsibility to shoulder that is why the government has prepared a detailed proposal to make sure that the private proponent has the capacity to take on the role of NAIA concessionaire.

"You have to remember that NAIA is the main gateway of the Philippines and we really need to catch up with improving it, modernizing it using innovations and technology as the new features," he said.

One of the main objectives of privatizing NAIA is to increase the capacity of its terminals, he said.

Currently, the airport capacity of NAIA is around P33 million passengers per year.

In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 48 million passengers were recorded at NAIA. Last year, 30 million used NAIA as their gateway.

This year, NAIA expects to provide its services to nearly 32 million.

By 2025, Lim said the DOTr sees at least 53 million passengers passing through NAIA.

"We really need to expand and that is one of the objectives using the PPP (public-private partnership) as the mode of privatizing NAIA," he said.

What was submitted to NEDA is the proposal on the conditions and basic parameters to be followed that outlined the basic terms that should be given for public bidding, Lim explained.

"We have suggested that anybody who is interested in joining the bidding will have to pay P30 billion to the government," he said. "The government will also continue to have a share in the revenue equivalent to around P30 billion per year. So these are all included in the terms and conditions. That is one package required."

Lim, however, stressed that privatizing NAIA does not mean that the government is selling it.

"We will just give a franchise to the winning private bidder with the right to operate, the right to rehabilitate," he said.

2023-06-08T11:49:12Z dg43tfdfdgfd