NEDA Board clears ₱12.75-billion Laguindingan Airport upgrade Project

21 July 2023

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has approved on Wednesday the ₱12.75-billion Laguindingan Airport Upgrade project.

In a Malacañang press briefing, Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan announced the Board gave the go-ahead for the unsolicited proposal to upgrade, expand, operate, and maintain the Laguindingan Airport.

Balisacan said the project calls for the immediate rehabilitation of the existing terminal, and construction of a bigger terminal annex together with support facilities for 3 more aerobridges to handle seven million passengers per annum (phases 2 and 3), construction of 400 meters runway extension, parallel taxiways, and apron expansion, for a concession period of 35 years.

NEDA expects the winning bidder for the ₱12.75-billion PPP project to be announced within the year.

Gov't Approves NAIA 170 Billion Pesos Upgrade Project

20 July 2023

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has approved the ₱170.6 billion solicited public-private partnership (PPP) proposal to rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Arsenio Balisacan said on Wednesday.

At a Palace briefing, Balisacan said the winning private concessionaire is required to invest in modern airport control equipment, construct Terminal 2 and 3 extensions within the next 2 years, establish new ramps, rehabilitate runways and taxiways, and connect Terminal 1-4 facilities for an in-extendible period of  15 years contract.

NEDA said the project is expected "to address longstanding issues at NAIA such as the inadequate capacity of passenger terminal buildings and restricted aircraft movement."

The rehabilitation project aims to increase the current airport capacity from 35 million passengers to at least 62 million passengers per year and increase air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour.

Currently, it handles 30,961,467 passengers as of June 2023. NAIA handled 47,898,046 passengers in 2019 prior to the covid19 pandemic that plagued the country which drastically reduced traffic throughput at the airport to  8,015,385 in 2021. 

The DOTr earlier floated the possibility of lengthening the concession period by including a provision that would extend it by another 10 years should the two new airports — New Manila International Airport in Bulacan and Sangley International Airport in Cavite — are delayed, but the stipulation was removed by NEDA.

The government planning agency also disapproved the solicited ₱267 billion proposal of Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) which is pushing for a 25-year concession period for the rehabilitation, improvement, operation and maintenance of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, saying the proposed plan of 70 million passengers per annum in 2048 is unrealistic. The MIAC plan is also inconsistent with JICA's Mega Manila Multiple Airport system transport strategy, adopted by the government of the Philippines.

You can find the Jica transport strategies for Mega Manila here and here

United Clears Manila Hurdle

Flight Begins 29 October to San Francisco

19 July 2023

US carrier United Airlines (United) announced that it is flying back to Manila starting October 29 with direct daily flights to San Francisco using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft which offers 60 seats in the business class, 24 seats in the premium cabin, and 266 seats in economy.

United flight UA191 will depart San Francisco at 12:30am arriving Manila's Terminal 3 at 6:30am. Return flight UA 190 shall depart at 9:55am arriving San Francisco at 7:20am.

United SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances Patrick Quayle during a July 17 media briefing said there is a “ton of traffic” between the U.S. and the Philippines. “All that traffic has to connect somewhere, or that traffic has to fly the Filipino flag-carrier.”

The carrier currently operates flights to Manila with Boeing 737-800 narrow bodies from Guam and Palau’s Koror Airai Airport.

According to Quayle, the airline application to fly Manila has been five years in the making until it was approved by Philippine regulators.

The airline flew nonstop B747-400 service between San Francisco and Manila until Feb. 20, 1998 due to the Asian Financial crisis which struck Southeast Asia in 1997 causing massive losses for its operations in the Philippines. It also flew Seattle and New York via stop overs in Seoul and Osaka until 2002 when it applied for Chapter 11 protection. 

The new flight will be the airline’s first-ever trans-Pacific service from Manila since the airline started its Manila operation in 1985 after taking over operations of Pan American Airways.

See United Airlines story in the Philippines here.