PHILIPPINE STAR/AJ BOLANDO

FIVE potential bidders are considering participating in the public bidding for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

In a Viber message on Wednesday, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said that as of Sept. 13, the upgrade of NAIA has attracted five companies.

The DoTr identified these companies as San Miguel Corp., India’s GMR group, the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC), Spark 888 Management, Inc., and the Asian Airport Consortium.

MIAC consists of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Alliance Global-Infracorp Development, Inc., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp., and US-based Global Infrastructure Partners.

In August, the government invited bidders for the P170.6-billion public-private partnership to modernize and operate the country’s airport.

The contract term for the project is 15 years and is extendable by another 10 years. The rehabilitation project targets to increase the airport’s annual passenger capacity to at least 62 million from 35 million.   

Earlier this year, the National Economic and Development Authority approved NAIA’s rehabilitation through a solicited proposal scheme, superseding an unsolicited bid.

The Transportation department earlier said that it was expecting to award the winning bidder for the project possibly by next year.

It said the government would facilitate the solicited bidding for the NAIA public-private partnership project. — Ashley Erika O. Jose