The North Luzon Airport Consortium won the operations and maintenance contract of Clark International Airport’s existing passenger terminal, and the new terminal building set to be operational by 2020, the Department of Transportation said Friday.
“I think the group of Changi airport won the bidding,” DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade told reporters.
Tugade was referring to the North Luzon Airport Consortium whose members are Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. and Changi Airport Philippines Pte. Ltd.
The other bidder who submitted bids for the Clark O&M was X-Droid Consortium, which includes Angkasa Pura II, Globalport 900, Mazy Capital and Desco.
Clark International Airport, which is being primed to be the next premier gateway to Asia, will open a new terminal in the first half of 2020.
The airport’s new terminal building is the first of the Duterte administration’s hybrid infrastructure projects, and complements other high-impact legacy projects in Central Luzon such as New Clark City and the Subic-Clark Railway.
Clark International Airport is the second main gateway in Luzon. The new 100,000-square-meter terminal will double its capacity to eight million passengers a year, easing the strain on Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City and boosting development of Central Luzon.
Clark International Airport has an annual capacity of four million passengers. Airlines operating in Clark include Qatar Airways, Cebu Pacific, Tigerair, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines, Dragon Air, AirAsia Berhad, Philippine Airlines and Emirates Airlines.
These airlines mount flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Macau, Pudong, Incheon, Doha, Dubai, Davao, Cebu, and Kalibo.
Megawide-GMR earlier won the bidding for the construction of a new passenger terminal in Clark Airport when it submitted the lowest financial proposal of P9.36 billion on Dec. 14.
Megawide-GMR also won a 25-year concession agreement in December 2013 that involved the renovation of Terminal 1 of Mactan Cebu airport and the design, financing, construction, and operation of a second terminal. It submitted the highest bid of P14.4 billion.
Megawide-GMR said earlier it was carefully evaluating plans to bid for Clark’s O&M contract, citing that the viability could be affected by San Miguel Corp.’s planned Bulacan airport and the rehabilitation of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Megawide president and chief executive Edgar Saavedra said earlier the Clark O&M project could no longer be that attractive because of the proposed rehabilitation of Naia and the implementation of the Bulacan airport project.
“The numbers could be challenging because of the award of original proponent status to San Miguel’s Bulacan airport and the Naia rehabilitation plan, which could potentially cannibalize the market,” Saavedra said.
