Sangley Airport development to start within next two years

The private concessionaire set to develop the Sangley Point Airport is looking to start building in the next two years after submitting its unsolicited proposal for the project in 2021, a top official said Monday.

According to House of Investments Inc. president and chief executive officer Lorenzo Tan, construction is set to start within the next two years given hurdles such as permits that are needed to be secured from the government.

“Depends on government approvals, so hopefully within the next two years before the end of (the term) of (President) BBM (Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos),” he told reporters at the sidelines of the MAP Annual General Membership Meeting in Taguig City.

House of Investments, along with Virata-led Cavitex Holdings Inc. and MacroAsia Corp. are among the local companies involved in the SPIA (Sangley Point International Airport) Development Consortium, which was awarded the $11-billion contract to develop the area in September 2022.

The group submitted an unsolicited proposal for the project in 2021, under a joint venture with the Cavite provincial government. It was granted the original proponent status in January 2022.

The consortium scored the approval of antitrust watchdog Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) last month, as the agency said the public-private partnership (PPP) project is “unlikely to result in a substantial lessening, restriction, or prevention of competition in the relevant market.”

Tan on Monday said the group is set to build a 4.3-kilometer highway to Sangley, while the existing runway, although still reusable, will have to be renovated.

He also said the group is in talks to team up with a foreign airport operator and possibly formalize a partnership within the next 12 months.

“We’re talking to a foreign partner who’s done airports in the Philippines,” Tan said, but did not identify the potential partner as signing has not yet been made.

Among the already announced foreign partners in the SPIA Development Consortium are Samsung C&T, the Munich Airport International GmbH, and Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited which will be the lead master development planner.

Under the project’s framework, the Cavite government and the consortium were given 18 months from the signing of the joint venture and development agreement to finalize the project’s design and business plan and to reach financing closing.

The Cavite government earlier said the first phase of the project — involving the first of four runways —  is expected to be operational by 2028. The second phase will result in a two-runway system with airport facilities capable of handling at least 75 million passengers yearly.—LDF, GMA Integrated News