Two consortium groups submitted bids for the operations and maintenance contract of Clark International Airport’s passenger terminal and the new one that will rise in 2020.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority and the Transportation Department confirmed during the opening of bids Friday that the X-Droid Consortium and the North Luzon Airport Consortium tendered their bids.
X-Droid Consortium is a four-company group comprising of Indonesian airport management firm Angkasa Pura II, local company Globalport 900, capital solutions provider Mazy’s Capital Inc. and Desco Inc.
North Luzon, meanwhile, is composed of Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. and Changi Airport Philippines Pte. Ltd.
BCDA vice president for business development and operations Joshua Bingcang said the bids would be subject to technical and financial assessment before the announcement of the winning party by the special bids and awards committee.
The O&M contract is expected to be awarded next month.
“We want the O&M to be on board to avoid problem in interface with the engineering, procurement and construction provider,” Bingcang said.
The O&M concessionaire will finance, design and complete all fit-out for the existing and new passenger terminals.
The Clark International Airport is set to be the country’s next premier gateway to Asia.
The airport’s new terminal building is the first of the hybrid infrastructure projects and complements other high-impact projects in Central Luzon, such as New Clark City and the Subic-Clark Railway.
Megawide Construction Corp. is building a new terminal in Clark. But the company said earlier it was carefully evaluating plans to bid for Clark’s O&M contract, citing that the viability could be affected by San Miguel Corp.’s planned Bulacan airport and the rehabilitation of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Megawide president and chief executive Edgar Saavedra said earlier the Clark O&M project could no longer be that attractive because of the proposed rehabilitation of Naia and the implementation of the Bulacan airport project.
“The numbers could be challenging because of the award of original proponent status to San Miguel’s Bulacan airport and the Naia rehabilitation plan, which could potentially cannibalize the market,” Saavedra said.
He said the ongoing Clark International Airport terminal expansion, which Megawide was currently building, involved the construction of a new passenger terminal capable handling twice the size of Terminal 2 of Cebu Mactan International Airport.
Clark is currently handling 1.5 million passengers.
“The size of [Clark Airport] terminal we are building right now is twice the size of Terminal 2 of Cebu because the plan last year was to close down Naia eventually. So the traffic will go to Clark and they wanted to build a bigger terminal even though traffic is currently only at 1.5 million passengers,” Saavedra said.
“Then suddenly there have been changes in the plan with the Bulacan airport and Naia rehabilitation plans. So it will be challenging and it may no longer be that attractive,” he said.