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The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) has announced that nine applications have been submitted in response to the Government of Jamaica's (GOJ) request for qualification (RFQ) for the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) public-private partnership project.

As we reported in February, the GOJ, through the Ministry of Transport and Mining launched the tender process to seek a private sector operator to operate, finance, develop and maintain the airport under a long term concession agreement.

Applications were submitted by Vinci Airports SAS, Cedicor S.A., Acciona Concesiones, S.L., GMR Infrastructure Limited, Zurich Airport, Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., Corporacion del Este, S.A.S., EGIS Projects S.A. and Jamaica Infra Development Partners Limited.

A list of pre-qualified firms will be announced by the GOJ within several weeks and a request for proposal will be issued in June. The pre-qualified firms will submit their bids in November. The government expects to award the project by December.

It is the third time that a tender process has been launched. In 2014, GOJ initiated the process but it was terminated to effect an administrative modification to the prequalification documents. In 2015 a new invitation for pre-qualification was issued and five teams were shortlisted (Cedicor SA; Zurich Airport International and A-Port Chile; Korea Airport Corporation Latin America and GK Capital Management; China Harbour Engineering Company and daa International; and Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este, Jamaica Producers Group and GBG Energy). However, no bids were submitted and the goverment approved plans to re-launch the tender process last year.

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has been appointed by the GOJ as lead advisor on the structuring and implementation of the Project. The DBJ, the GOJ’s Privatization Agency and PPP Unit are co-advisors and Secretariat for the transaction.

The airport is owned by the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) and currently operated by NMIA Airports Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the AAJ.