The Philippine transportation department has proposed changes for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport expansion project following one-on-one meetings with the pre-qualified bidders.

In a bid bulletin released on Thursday, September 19, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) announced the new bid date and the changes to the final concession agreement for the airport project.

These are the proposed changes in the concession agreement meant to make the project more attractive to investors:

• Lengthening of the concession period from 20 years to 25 years
• Transfer of the Operation and Maintenance from the grantors to the concessionaire
• Allowing flexibility on the implementation of augmentation of capacity
• Sharing of liability for Real Property Tax
• Increasing the duration of the period for prohibiting competing airports from 10 years or when the passenger traffic at the airport reaches 15 million per year to 20 years or when passenger traffic reaches 20 million for 3 years depending which is later

These meant the bidding will be moved to a new schedule - November 15.

Unresolved commercial issues had taken the Philippine government to delay the Aug. 28 deadline for its first airport PPP deal-the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

All seven groups vying for the Mactan airport project were successfully prequalified in May. The teams are the following:

1. MPIC-JG Summit Consortium composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and JG Summit Holdings, Inc., with France's Aeroports De Lyon as operation and maintenance (O&M) partner;
2. AAA Airport Partners composed of the Ayala and Aboitiz groups, with Texas-based Houston Airport System as O&M partner;
3. Filinvest-CAI Consortium of Filinvest Development Corp. and Changi Airports Mena Pte. Ltd., with Changi Airport Saudi Ltd. as the O&M partner;
4. San Miguel-Incheon Airport Consortium, composed of South Korea's Incheon International Airport Corp. as lead member and three others, including San Miguel Corp.-led Optimal Infrastructure Development, Inc. - with Incheon acting as the O&M partner;
5. First Philippine Airports led by First Philippine Holdings, Inc., with Wellington International Airport Ltd., NZ Airports Ltd., and Infratil Ltd. as O&M partners;
6. Premier Airport Group led by SM Investments Corp., with Switzerland-based Flughafen Zurich AG as O&M partner; and
7. GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd., with Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd. and GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. as O&M partners.

The P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu airport project involves construction of a new terminal, rehabilitation of the existing facility and a 20-year O&M contract.