While denying rumors of turning the Philippines’ busiest gateway over to the private sector, the Marcos administration is looking to hire a private company to manage traffic and increase movement at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said he and other government officials met with the undisclosed company during their trip to New York last year.
“A private firm cannot own an airport,” Mr. Marcos told journalists in a televised interview. “At most, we will have a management contract… without changing anything.”
“They said that without new equipment, without building a new runway, they can increase the traffic from what is presently they refer to as 35 movements per hour to 45 movements per hour. We want that,” the President said.
“They have a huge experience in running ports and running airports,” Mr. Marcos said.
Representatives of the company were in Manila “last week to look at the operation of the airport,” the President said.
Marcos did not disclose how much the Philippines is expected to shell out for the outsourced service from the foreign company.
Earlier this month, hundreds of flights were canceled and delayed after a power outage in NAIA grounded flights and paralyzed Philippine airspace. It happened again over the weekend, with a handful of flights affected.