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MANILA, Philippines - The Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark, Pampanga is expected to get a major boost in its bid to be the country’s next international gateway with government plans for two major infrastructure projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) program.
Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president Victor Jose Luciano said that a new “budget” terminal is being proposed to be constructed at DMIA, in addition to the existing terminal as well as the planned second terminal.
Luciano revealed that the new budget terminal, the construction of which will be the subject of a solicited bid under the PPP, is estimated to have a cost of P8 billion and to have an annual capacity of 10 million passengers.
While existing Terminal I and planned Terminal II (which is being eyed by both the San Miguel Corp. group and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.) will service legacy carriers while the “budget” terminal will be devoted to low-cost carriers (LCCs) or so-called budget carriers.
Some of these LCCs include AirPhil Express of the Lucio Tan group and Air Asia Philippines, which will be servicing Southeast Asian routes out of Clark.
From 600,000 passengers last year, DMIA, using its lone terminal, is expected to service around 800,000 to 900,000 this year.
Another infrastructure project that will benefit DMIA is one initiated by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) – involving putting up a city air terminal (i.e. at Trinoma in Mindanao Avenue, Quezon City where MRT Line 3 trains originate) whereshuttle buses will be stationed to bring passengers to the Clark airport.
Luciano said that as planned, there will also be a parking building, where Clark-bound passengers can leave their vehicles. “We just have to find a definite location for the city air terminal and we are in talks with a number of mall owners,” he disclosed.
To be bid out under the PPP program, the project will include not only putting up the terminal but also managing it, as well as acquiring and operating the shuttle buses and the parking building.
According to Luciano, these are all in preparation to making DMIA as the country’s newest international gateway in three to five years time and as part of a two-airport system, the other one being the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
With NAIA already becoming congested and with no longer any room for expansion, Luciano said that DMIA is envisioned to accommodate the “spill-over” from NAIA.
“We are not seeing the closure of NAIA nor are we proposing that DMIA compete with NAIA. The two will be inter-linked, with DMIA complementing NAIA’s operations and servicing those which NAIA can no longer accommodate,” he added.
With the two-airport system being implemented successfully in many countries at present, Luciano expects the same model to work for the Philippines.
A study made by the Indra group for MPIC has proposed the same model to MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan, whose group has expressed interest in operating not only DMIA’s second terminal but a comprehensive system for the Clark airport as well as NAIA.
MPIC wants not only to build DMIA Terminal II but also to put up a high-speed rail system that will connect the Clark airport with NAIA.
DMIA Terminal II was the subject of an unsolicited proposal from the Philco-Aero group in which SMC has already reportedly acquired a stake in. After receiving the go-signal for the preparation for the terms of reference for a Swiss challenge to the unsolicited proposal, CIAC has found itself temporarily shelving the proposal due to indications from government that it wants to go the solicited bid route for Terminal II.
Luciano earlier told The STAR that he has written the Office of the President to clarify once for all whether or not they will still consider the unsolicited proposal from the Philco-Aero group or proceed with a solicited bidding process under the PPP.
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