The new NAIA

cheap. And the P446-billion or $7.8-billion economic benefits even cheaper. The P446 billion includes: P100 billion from gross value-added in tourism activities, P152 billion from increased passenger comfort, P60 billion from passenger time savings, P65 billion from aircraft decongestion savings and P65 billion from new local jobs.

Aviation already contributes 3.4 percent of GDP or P840 billion out of a normal year GDP of P24 trillion. Of that P840 billion, 60 percent or P504 billion is contributed by NAIA’s three terminals and ancillary industries.

This implies that even without improving NAIA, the economy already gets P506 billion in “gross economic benefits.” So why does MIAC offer only P446 billion for 25 years when even with nobody lifting a finger, the present NAIA already makes for the economy P504 billion every year?

Which means the consortium in its first year of operating the NAIA will get back its $2-billion investments – $1-billion cash to the government and $1 billion in cash to fix its airport facilities to improve passenger “comfort” and reduce passenger “stress.”

Kevin L. Tan, CEO of the Alliance Global Group, Inc. of Andrew Tan; Cossete Canilao, CEO of Aboitiz InfraCapital of the Aboitiz Group; Cezar Consing, president and CEO of Ayala Corp.; Josephine Gotianun Yap, CEO of Filinvest Development Corp.; BJ Sebastian, treasurer of JG Summit Infrastructure (whose airline is Cebu Pacific) and Jose Gabriel D. Olives, CFO of LT Group (whose airline is PAL) gave a press conference on Monday, June 19 to explain their unsolicited proposal.

I was asking the group if they could kindly increase the value of their proposal. Before any of them could make a sensible answer, somebody who looks like an Indian grabbed the mike from me. And the open forum was terminated abruptly.

Under its so-called P267billion masterplan or unsolicited proposal, the consortium aims to more than double NAIA’s passenger capacity, from 31 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to about 70 million by 2048, “enabling the Philippines to transform itself into a regional economic hub.”

Rehab will be in three phases. Phase I, called “Quick Wins,” is to increase capacity to 54 million by 2025 or two years;

Phase 2 to 62.5 million by 2028 and Phase 3 to 70 million by 2048.

Phase 2 involves development of the terminal floor area, additional airfield facilities and improved cross-terminal transportation. Phase 3 merely talks of “long-term expansion and development projects to further expand terminal space and airfield capacity.”

There is no talk or plan about NAIA’s two biggest problems –its having only one runway, with a secondary runway forming a letter T to the main runway, and its limit of maximum aircraft movements per hour – 42 planes taking off and landing in 60 minutes, with one runway. The consortium promises to improve aircraft movement to 50 but that is not a firm plan.

In comparison, Ramon Ang’s 2,500-hectare San Miguel International Airport in Bulacan promises to service in five years 75 million passengers with 120 per hour aircraft movements using initially two runways. “The runways are parallel and zero/zero both ends of the runways. There is no restriction in height and noise,” RSA points out. San Miguel Aerocity’s New

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