AirAsia, Indonesia airport firm partner for Clark bid

The AirAsia Group is teaming up with Indonesia’s top airport operator for plans to operate and maintain the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

Philippines AirAsia Inc. chief executive officer Dexter Comendador said AirAsia would be submitting its bid this month for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark International Airport in partnership with Angkasa Pura of Indonesia.

“We’re just a small part of the consortium. Angkasa Pura, they’re the second largest and busiest airport operator in Indonesia,” Comendador said.

AirAsia is among the nine firms which purchased bid documents for the Clark International Airport O&M.

Other companies which purchased bid documents are Metro Pacific Investments Corp., San Miguel Holdings Corp., Megawide-GMR Consortium, Filinvest Development Corp., Prime Assets Venture, Central Luzon Infrastructure Consultancy Inc. Consortium, GVK Airport Developers Ltd. and Groupe ADP.

The project will involve a 25-year concession to operate Clark airport’s existing terminal building, as well as the new terminal building to be built by the group of Megawide-GMR which bagged the engineering, procurement, and construction contract in December last year.

Bid submission for the project was originally scheduled on July 20, but has been pushed back to this month.

A Bases Conversion and Development Authority official said there is no specific date as for the bid submission yet but it would be probably be on the latter part of September.

Comendador said Clark airport is attractive to the AirAsia group given that “it is already there.”

Meanwhile, he personally expressed concern over looming “overcapacity in the air” with plans to develop more airports that are not too far from each other.

“It was mentioned that they (government) wanted to build a lot of airports, especially in Manila area. My concern, personally as a pilot and not as an airline executive, is safety. We already have five existing airports within the 60 nautical miles, we call it in aviation terminal maneuvering area, with Manila at the center,” he said.

“The point is, it’s already busy up there. The air space is getting too crowded. And they want to add a sixth airport within the 60 nautical mile radius. Its going to be a nightmare on the air. It’s like EDSA. It has reached its maximum capacity. Manila on the ground has reached it capacity and in the air. You just can’t keep on adding more runways to have more planes going up, trying to release the pressure on the ground but you’re bringing the pressure on top,” Comendador said.