Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). (Photo from the Manila International Airport Authority)
MANILA, Philippines — The government is not planning to privatize the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said in a panel interview on Monday.
This was contrary to a remark that Transportation Jaime Bautista said earlier that the government was working to expedite the privatization of NAIA.
“We have no plans of privatizing. There’s no plan to privatize anything. Rather, we do the opposite,” Marcos said.
He did discuss NAIA with Bautista. But the transportation chief probably “misspoke or was misinterpreted,” he said.
“You cannot privatize an airport, to begin with. They cannot own the airport. A private firm cannot own the airport,” Marcos said.
He said, however, that the government was looking to hire a foreign private company to manage traffic and increase movement at NAIA.
He said he and other government officials met with a company, which he did not name, during their trip to New York City last year.
“They said that without new equipment, without building a new runway, they can increase the traffic from what is presently they refer to as 35 movements per hour to 45 movements per hour. We want that. They have a huge experience in running ports and running airports,” Marcos said.
Representatives from that company, he said, were in Manila “last week to look at the operation of the airport.”
Marcos raised the possibility of a “management contract” with the unnamed firm.