All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp., a consortium led by tycoon Henry Sy and the Tieng family, is pushing Sangley and Clark as the new international gateway airports.
“These two are strategically located to serve the northern and southern parts of Luzon. Those in Metro Manila can choose which one is more convenient to them which will also help ease traffic,” ARRC vice chairman Edmund Lim said in a statement.
ARCC proposed to build the Philippine Global Gateway project worth P1.3 trillion to decongest traffic in Metro Manila. Under the project, ARRC plans to build an international airport, seaport, economic zone and real estate components in Sangely Point, Cavite.
ARRC also proposed to reclaim 2,500 hectares at Sangley Point. The new airport would be designed to have a capacity of 90 million passengers.
An international airport in Sangley can be up and running in four to five years after the government gives a notice to proceed, ARRC said.
“It will be built by our company in partnership with foreign partners without the need for a single cent from the government. We have already signed all the contracts to make this happen. We are ready but we need the government to give its nod,” Lim said.
Clark, he said, only needed to be upgraded and “perhaps should be the one whose operations and maintenance should be privatized,” referring to a government decision to hold the operation and maintenance of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Naia has two intersecting runways and limited space for expansion, especially for a new parallel runway. “We can have two airports we can be proud of, not just one. Clark is underutilized because it really needs to have a new terminal and infrastructure for easy access. It is the one that must be privatized, not NAIA,” he said.
Meanwhile, San Miguel Corp. proposed a P700-billion ($14 billion) facility, rivaling an offer from a group led by billionaire Henry Sy.
The conglomerate submitted a plan to the Department of Transportation with a provision for up to six runways in a 2,500-hectare property in Bulacan province, president Ramon Ang said in a phone interview. It will be built without any guarantee or a subsidy from the government, he said.
“We will finance everything, build everything by ourselves and take the risk,” Ang said Wednesday. The government could sell the 600-hectare property where the current Manila airport complex is located for $20 billion and have the area converted into a new business district, he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who has vowed to boost infrastructure spending to a record, is also counting on private investors to upgrade facilities as Manila struggles to cope with rising flight traffic and road congestion.
Air passengers passing through Manila will probably more than double to 140 million by 2035 from about 60 million in 2014, according to the International Air Transport Association. The present airport, with four terminals, is already handling traffic in excess of its capacity of 31 million fliers a year, according to IATA.
A bigger airport will help the nation’s travel and tourism industry, which accounted for 6.1 percent of the economy in 2016, up from 4.2 percent the previous year, according to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council. With Bloomberg
