Naia to undergo upgrading in 2013 as number of air travellers increase

MANILA, Philippines—Amid the increasing number of passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the state operator of the facility is gearing for a number of the projects to improve services at the country’s premier gateway.

To be bid out this month by the Manila International Airport Authority is the baggage porter service at the four Naia terminals. The one-year contract requires the winning concessionaire to pay a minimum of 10-percent of its monthly gross income to the MIAA, according to the agency’s bids and awards committee chair Vicente Guerzon Jr.

The opening of bids for the baggage porter service has been scheduled for Friday, 10 a.m.

The MIAA is also looking for a provider for the supply and installation of a new remote-controlled and monitored air navigation hazard prevention system worth P45 million. According to Guerzon, the project is for an extended range bird control acoustic equipment, which would be used to drive away birds from the airport vicinity so that they would not endanger leaving, approaching or taxiing planes.

Meanwhile, the public bidding for the repair and re-water proofing of Naia Terminal 2 main roof, has been indefinitely suspended by the MIAA for undisclosed reason. Bids for the P248.47 contract were supposed to be opened Dec. 19, 2012; this was postponed to today. However, last Monday, BAC secretariat chief Karen Wright issued a notice stating that the submission and the opening of bids has been postponed “until further notice.”

Other big projects to be bid out by the MIAA within the first two months of the year include labor and materials for the upgrading of the public address speakers at Terminal 1, with the contract costing P15 million and bids to be opened Feb. 2; purchase of five low-floored mini buses, P14 million, Jan. 11; and the replacement and servicing the switchgear, oil transformer and circuit breaker at the Naia cargo terminal, P9.9 million, Jan. 25.

Based on MIAA’s statistics, the Naia terminals handled a total of 31,558,002 airplane passengers in 2012, an increase of 6.2 percent from 29,702,458 passengers serviced in 2011. The 2012 figure is composed of 13,928,034 passengers who boarded international flights and 17,629,968 passengers who boarded domestic flights.

With more airlines using bigger aircraft, there were only 214,354 flights at Naia last year compared to 218,925 flights in 2011.

Terminal 1 and 2 are operating way above their original designed capacities of 4.5 million and 7.5 million passengers annually. The partly operational Terminal 3 has an annual passenger capacity of 13 million, which is projected to be breached this year.

The Sydney-based think-tank Center for Aviation recently reported NAIA to be the 34th busiest airport in the world; last year the airport placed 46th.