Now that President Marcos has already declared he has no plans to privatize the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Department of Transportation should stop talking about this subject, particularly in Congress.
What the President wants is to upgrade and properly maintain the communication, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) of NAIA so that the January 1, 2023 glitch that forced the airport to shut down—endangering lives and causing flared tempers and inconvenience to thousands of passengers and flight crews of 600 flights—would not happen again.
In a press conference in Malacañang on Tuesday, DoTr Secretary Jaime J. Bautista said Marcos ordered the fasttracking of the signing of a new agreement with the maintenance provider of NAIA, Sumitomo-Thales, which expired in 2020. So, who was maintaining it all along?
As early as September 2022, DOTr initiated negotiations with Sumitomo-Thales for the maintenance of NAIA, but it is being hampered by the firm’s pending claims with the government.
“We met with Sumitomo-Thales a few weeks ago and we suggested that we negotiate for a permanent maintenance agreement pending the settlement of the issues,” Bautista said adding the negotiation would also entail system upgrade for CNS/ATM.
“We need to upgrade the software. He said the supplier must do two upgrades a year. And since 2020, we have not had any of the upgrades,” Bautista said.
As a long-term solution to address the operational issues of NAIA, Bautista said they now plan to put up a permanent backup CNS/ATM for the said facility.
“It is important that we have a permanent back-up system which can be located in another site which can operate simultaneously with the existing system,” Bautista said.
He said they will prepare a feasibility study for the backup system, which they will be submitting to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for consideration.
To ensure NAIA will be maintained, Bautista also reiterated their plans to “privatize” the operations of the facility through a concession agreement.
Under the concession agreement, he explained, the government will still maintain ownership of NAIA, but its operations will be outsourced to a third party.
Last Monday, President Marcos announced that the government is now in talks with a New York-based firm to boost the efficiency of the operations of NAIA. The firm is currently operating several airports, including Gatwick Airport in London.
He said the government cannot privatize an airport and a private company cannot own the airport, which is the country’s main gateway. But he would have it managed professionally.
Even this is not favorable to labor groups, who expressed concern that the turnover of the NAIA operations will lead to mass displacement of airport workers and lead to a higher terminal fee for passengers.
Bautista assured if the concession agreement pushes through, the third-party operator of NAIA will not be allowed to raise fees without permission from government.