NAIA to get a new passenger terminal building
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is slated to get a new passenger terminal building to be located at the abandoned Philippine Village Hotel, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president and CEO Ramon Ang announced.
Ang pledged this change along with other improvements to the airport in a media briefing held after the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concession agreement was inked on March 18.
The SMC president said that the new terminal will have a capacity of 35 million passengers per year and house 50 boarding bridges. Offices at other existing NAIA terminals will also be relocated to the new building, Ang added.
The said building, to rise on the old Philippine Village Hotel near terminal 2, is promised to be up in three years.
Additionally, the rehabilitation project aims to ease traffic going into the airport by 2025 with a new Skyway connector.
The SMC-led consortium won the bid to rehabilitate the country's main gateway in February. The consortium, composed of SMC and Incheon Airport of South Korea, will take over the Manila International Airport Authority for the next 15 years.
With the NAIA Public-Private Partnership Project (PPP) concession agreement signed, operations and maintenance of the airport will be handed over to the concessionaire by September 2024. The PPP has a budget of P170.6 billion for improving facilities such as runways, terminals, and other facilities to improve the passenger experience at the airport.
NAIA was ranked the eighth worst airport in Asia by international rental company Casago in August 2023 and the fourth worst airport in Asia for business travel by BusinessFinancing.co.uk.
The gateway has also been plagued with issues in recent weeks with bed bugs found in NAIA terminals 2 and 3 and rats spotted in terminal 3.