SMC-led group to operate NAIA

MANILA – SMC-SAP & Co. Consortium emerged the winning bidder to operate and rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista announced Friday.

The group, composed of San Miguel Holdings Corp., RMM Asian Logistics, Inc., RLW Aviation Development, Inc. and Incheon International Airport Corp., bagged the PHP170.6 billion public-private partnership (PPP) project by offering the biggest revenue share of 82.16 percent to the government.

"The privatization of the operations and maintenance of NAIA was conceptualized as early as 30 years ago when the government of then president Fidel Ramos started the privatization of Terminal 3. Unfortunately, it ended up in court and in early 2000, it was taken over by government. So 30 years in the making, now we will be able to privatize the operations and maintenance of the Manila International Airport," Bautista said in a press briefing.

Transportation Undersecretary Timothy Batan said the project could be among the fastest in the country's PPP history -- from the project development process that started on Feb. 2,

2023 until its approval on Feb. 15 this year.

"This process is one of if not the fastest solicited PPP project of the Philippine government. Prior to this, it was 18 months for the MCX PPP project," he said. "It is the directive of President (Ferdinand) Marcos Jr. to make the PPP more attractive to the private sector," he added.

This was seconded by Bautista, saying the Transportation department, along with the PPP Center, the Manila International Airport Authority, the Department of Finance and the National Economic and Development Authority worked hard to implement the project the soonest.

The government opened the bidding for the contract to rehabilitate, operate, and maintain the NAIA in August 2023.

Aside from SMC-SAP & Co., two other groups qualified for the bidding -- the GMR Airports Consortium which offered 33.30 percent revenue share, and the Manila International Airport Consortium that offered a 25.9 share.