Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., the infrastructure business unit of the Aboitiz Group, secured an original proponent status from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines for its unsolicited proposal to upgrade, expand, operate and maintain the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental province.
“The granting of the OPS for the Laguindingan Airport opens up an opportunity for us to play a major role in improving our country’s vital gateways,” AIC chief operating officer Cosette Canilao said.
“We believe we can be instrumental in connecting our country’s local economies, thereby uplifting the lives of Filipinos. We look forward to progressing beyond project development, and into project execution and operations in 2019,” she said.
The P42.7-billion project involves the capacity augmentation through expansion or construction of new passenger terminals, installation of required equipment and enhancement and development of airside facilities.
Businessmen in northern Mindanao said the rehabilitation and upgrade of the airport would be critical to the growth of investments and development of various industries in the region, particularly tourism.
“The airport is a very important factor. We are excited to know that Aboitiz got the OPS. It took us 20 years before this airport was built. We don’t want to wait another 20 years for its expansion,” Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries Region 10 Governor Ghaye Alegrio said.
Alegrio said northern Mindanao got the lion share of the country’s newly registered investments in 2018. “The Board of Investments reported that BOI-registered companies last year was about P900 billion and 25 percent of that was in northern Mindanao,” she said.
Passenger traffic at Laguindingan Airport has been above the airport’s design capacity of 1.6 million passengers a year from the time the airport began operations in 2013, based on statistics from CAAP.
Some two million passengers passed through this airport in 2018.
AIC earlier obtained an original proponent status from the government to operate and maintain the future development and expansion of the New Bohol International Airport.
The new airport on Panglao Island aims to replace the current airport in Tagbilaran City, which is currently serving under one million passengers a year. With much larger capacity, the New Bohol International Airport will be a key catalyst in unlocking the tourism potential of Bohol and the rest of the region.