A Philippine inter-agency panel chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday denied a 267 billion pesos (S$6.5 billion) unwanted proposal from a local consortium to enforce and polish the nation’s ageing sole international airport. The panel conveyed it was more in favor to welcome bids for the airport modernisation deal, which based on the government’s estimate would cost 170.6 billion pesos, and the consortium of six of the Philippines’ hugest conglomerates was welcome to collaborate. Ranked among the world’s worst international gateways, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport really requires an improvement to end destructive flight delays, deal with congestion, and make facilities better.
Previous efforts to bring advancement to the airport have not been successful because of spats between the authorities and contractors. The government-accepted project dreams to upgrade yearly airport capacity to at least 62 million passengers from the present 35 million, and boost air traffic movement to 48 aircraft per hour from 40, almost similar to the consortium’s goal of upgrading the facility. There was no remark made from the consortium when it was questioned if it was open to taking part in the bidding, but said in a statement that the airport’s modernisation needed a long-term and comprehensive solution.