Rival Philippine firms set aside differences to fix up Manila airport

Powerful business interests in the Philippines have once again banded together with a plan to give Manila's crowded and aging airport a much-needed face-lift. Six conglomerates have come together to form the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC). The group has submitted a 267b-pesos ($4.8b) investment plan to fix up the airport before the government has started accepting bids. The COVID crisis doomed a previous proposal from the private sector to upgrade Manila's airport. This time around, MIAC is counting on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s infrastructure agenda to bring the airport project to fruition. "We are here today because of one shared goal and vision, and that is the rehabilitation and modernization of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA," Kevin Tan, CEO of the conglomerate Alliance Global Group, said during a June 19 event with his MIAC peers. Apart from Alliance Global, MIAC's Philippine members include Aboitiz, Ayala, LT Group, Filinvest and JG Summit Holdings. The consortium has also brought in the U.S. investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners. The Philippine Department of Transportation plans to refurbish the Manila airport through a public-private partnership. The airport will become privatized as soon as 2024, and MIAC is essentially waiting for authorities to approve its bid. Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is Manila's one main hub. Barring congestion, the airport is conveniently located 30 minutes away from Makati, Manila's financial district. NAIA has the capacity to handle 31m passengers a year, but in 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic grounded travel across the word, traffic reached 47.9m passengers. Because of the lack of infrastructure, a traveler would need to arrive well ahead of time to depart, and port-of-entry procedures take just as long.<br/>