Cavite awards $11-B Sangley Int’l Airport project to Virata-Yuchengo-led consortium

The provincial government of Cavite has awarded the $11-billion contract to redevelop Sangley Airport into an international gateway to a group composed of Philippine, South Korean, and European firms.
 
In a news release on Thursday, the Cavite government said it awarded the contract for the Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) project to the SPIA Development Consortium during a ceremony in Makati City on Wednesday.
 
In late August, the Cavite government said the SPIA Development Consortium was set to bag the project as “there were no challengers or interested companies that registered and purchased the bid documents for the Competitive Challenge Process of the Sangley Pont International Airport (SPIA) Project.” 

The Competitive Challenge or Swiss challenge is a mandatory process under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code of the Province of Cavite designed to solicit comparative proposals from other potential proponents as counterbids to the unsolicited proposal submitted by the SPIA Development Consortium, the original proponent of the project.
 
In January, the SPIA Development Consortium was granted the original proponent status (OPS) by the provincial government of Cavite for the SPIA project. 
 
The OPS gives a proponent the right to directly negotiate the final terms and conditions of the joint venture with the province as well as the right to match the best counter proposal that may be received during the 60-day mandatory Competitive Challenge or Swiss challenge process.
 
The SPIA Development Consortium submitted an unsolicited proposal in November 2021 to form a joint venture with the Province of Cavite.
 
“This new airport is the future of the country. This airport is the hope of the country. The Province is just a small player. But if we work together, we can do this for our people,” said Cavite Governor Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla.

SPIA Development Consortium’s lead Philippine members are Virata-led Cavitex Holdings Inc.—responsible for the development, design, and construction of the Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) that was eventually acquired by Metro Pacific Investments Corp.—and the Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC)—a conglomerate engaged in construction, infrastructure development, banking, insurance, and automotive services, among others.
 
Lucio Tan-led MacroAsia Corp., the country’s leading aviation support and services provider, will provide management and technical services for aviation support as well as the logistics component of the project.
 
It is a non-equity member of the consortium.
 
Joining the local companies in the consortium are foreign firms such as Samsung C&T Corp. of South Korea, which built the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Terminal 1 of the Incheon International Airport, and the extension of the Changi International Airport.

Samsung C&T also built the Incheon Bridge and the Yeongjong Bridge, which are the main access and support infrastructure to Incheon International Airport.
 
Munich Airport International GmbH, the operator of Munich Airport, will serve as technical consultant for the airport concept of operations and maintenance, including route development.
 
Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited will be the lead master development planner.
 
Under the project’s framework, the Cavite government and the consortium will have up to 18 months from the signing of the joint venture and development agreement – which is expected to take place next month – to finalize the project’s design and business plan and to reach financial closing, which starts the new airport’s full-scale construction. 

Phase 1 of SPIA, which includes the first of four runways, is expected to be operational by 2028, according to the Cavite government.
 
It added that the Phase 2 expansion will result in a two-runway system with airport facilities capable of handling at least 75 million passengers per annum.
 
In January 2021, negotiations between the provincial government of Cavite and project proponents Macroasia Corp. and China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) collapsed, stalling the redevelopment of Sangley Airport.
 
The project is envisioned as a fully modernized, world-class, green airport that is designed to meet an anticipated increase in demand for air transport in the next 30 to 40 years.

The SPIA Development Consortium earlier said that as soon as the project is awarded, they are ready to transform Sangley Airport into a premium gateway that can provide an alternative to the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), thereby significantly boosting economic growth and enhancing the local tourism and aviation industries. — VBL, GMA News