MANILA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Seven of the Philippines' biggest conglomerates submitted on Tuesday a proposal to rehabilitate and upgrade Manila's international airport, putting in a bid of 350 billion pesos (roughly 6.7 billion U.S. dollars) for the project.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) consortium said the proposal to upgrade the country's busiest air gateway was submitted to the Department of Transportation and the Manila International Airport Authority.
"Through this proposal, we envision a new NAIA: a fully integrated premier gateway that we Filipinos can truly be proud of, backed by the know-how of an experienced technical partner and the strong synergy of seven homegrown teams," consortium speaker and Aboitiz InfraCapital vice president Jose Emmanuel Reverente told a news conference.
The companies included Andrew Tan's Alliance Globe Group Inc., Ayala Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp., Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Lucio Tan's LT Group.
Two of those groups, JG Summit and LT Group, own the country's two largest commercial air carriers, Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines, respectively.
The consortium said the vision is to make NAIA into a world-class facility and a regional air transport hub by upgrading its airside, landside, and air navigation support.
"The proposal involves expanding and interconnecting the existing terminals of NAIA, upgrading airside facilities, and developing commercial facilities to increase airline and airport efficiencies, enhance passenger comfort and experience, and improve public perception of NAIA as the country's premier international gateway," Reverente said.
The group believes that making NAIA into a world class airport would lure more tourists to flock into the country.
The group said it has tapped Changi Airport International, the operator of Singapore's Changi Airport, as technical partner for the NAIA project.
In their proposal, the consortium said it plans to undertake the NAIA rehabilitation project under a 35-year concession period, after which the airport will be handed back to the government at no cost.
It said the plan is to develop the project in two phases. Phase one entails improvements and expansion of terminals with the current NAIA land area to increase the airport's annual capacity to 65 million passengers in 48 months.
Phase two, which is still under discussion, involves the development of an additional runway, taxiways, passenger terminals, and associated support infrastructure, it said.
The consortium said it plans to link the airport to the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and Light Rail Transit Line 1.
