Rappler, 15 December 2014
 
The concessionaire will develop, operate, and maintain 6 provincial airports in the country

MANILA, Philippines – The search is on for a concessionaire that will develop, operate, and maintain 6 provincial airports, in a bundled contract of P116.2 billion ($2.60 billion*), the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) announced Monday, December 15.

DOTC, through the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), invited prospective bidders to submit bids to pre-qualify and bid to finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain the following airports:

  • Davao International Airport (P40.57 billion; $908.61 million*)
  • Iloilo (P30.4 billion; $680.84 million)
  • Bacolod-Silay (P20.26 billion; $453.54 million)
  • Laguindingan (P14.62 billion; $327.43 million)
  • Puerto Princesa (P5.81 billion; $130.08 million)
  • New Bohol (Panglao – P4.57 billion; $102.32 million)

DOTC’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) is considering bundling the 6 airports based on location, spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal said.

The DOTC is looking at bundling the airports in the east consisting of Puerto Princesa, Iloilo, and Davao, while those in the west will be comprised of New Bohol (Panglao), Laguindingan (Misamis Oriental), and Bacolod-Silay.

“The intention is to bundle the airports, but this will depend largely on the inputs of interested groups during the process prior to the bidding itself,” Sagcal said.

The private sector concessionaire for the Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, and Laguindingan airports will take over operations and maintenance; undertake immediate expansion of the passenger terminal buildings, apron, other airside, and landside facilities; and any capacity augmentation throughout the contract.

The private proponent would also take over the operations and maintenance of the New Bohol (Panglao) and Puerto Princesa airports.

A 30-year concession contract would be awarded through a competitive bidding following the rules and procedures prescribed under Republic Act (RA) 6957, as amended by RA 7718 otherwise known as the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law.

The bundled airports project will be implemented through the operate-add-transfer agreement, whereby DOTC and CAAP will enter into concession agreements for the expansion, operations, and maintenance of the existing airports to private operators, DOTC said in the invitation.

The DOTC is set to apply the 2-stage / 2-envelope system for soliciting bids under the BOT Law.

The preliminary information memorandum was made available on December 3, while the instruction to prospective bidders will be available in February 2015.

Beyond capacity

Traffic at the 6 provincial airports has either exceeded or is nearing their design capacity levels, DOTC said.

Traffic at the Davao International Airport is growing at an annual rate of 10.56% over the past 5 years and handled 2.79 million passengers in 2013, making it the 3rd busiest airport in the Philippines after the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the Mactan-Cebu international airport.

Passenger volume at the Iloilo International Airport is growing at an average rate of 11% over the past 5 years to hit 1.82 million last year thus making it the 5th busiest airport in the country.

The 6th busiest, the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental, saw an increase in its volume to 15.1%, hitting 1.78 million last year.

Puerto Princesa Airport, meanwhile, saw an average increase of 22.8% to hit 1.33 million.

The Bacolod-Silay International Airport grew an average of 9.6% to reach 1.32 million in 2013.

The DOTC has tapped a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to put up the New Bohol airport in Panglao Island that would replace the Tagbilaran airport once completed in the middle of 2017. – Rappler.com

*$1 = P44.67