CLARK FREEPORT – Amid the impending takeover of the Clark International Airport here by private firm North Luzon Airport Consortium (NLAC), the state-owned Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) will not cease to exist.
Even as officials confirmed that NLAC won the bidding for the 25- year operation and management of the airport, the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and its implementing arm CIAC are offering “acceptable retirement benefits” to 359 employees, although only 160 of them are directly assigned at the airport.
In a recent meeting with local media, CIAC president-CEO Jaime Alberto Melo said retirement is now being offered to the CIAC employees, especially the 160 personnel amid lack of assurance they would be retained by NLAC which is expected to take over early next year.
Melo expressed optimism each retiree could be given no less than the equivalent of at least their monthly pay per year of service.
He said, however, that the 160 employees could yet be rehired under a six-month probation status, with no assurance of being replaced later on.
Despite the NLAC assuming jurisdiction over the Clark airport, Melo stressed that CIAC would not cease to exist.
He stressed that NLAC would take over the management and operation of an area covering only 800 hectares of the civil aviation complex, including the existing terminal and another whose construction is in full blast.
“Take note that the Clark civil aviation area covers 3,200 hectares. Outside the area to be privatized, there is still a commercial area under CIAC jurisdiction,” he said.
This area includes the Clark Logistics City which hosts The Medical City, among other investors.
But a CIAC employee who asked not to be named said that even those assigned outside the airport are likely to face personnel downsizing within CIAC.
“We all know that the airport is the bread and butter of CIAC and without it, there will not be enough funds for our salaries,” he said.
Transportation Sec. Arthur Tugade has bared that NLAC won the operations and maintenance contract of Clark airport’s existing passenger terminal, and the new terminal building set to be operational by 2020.
“I think the group of Changi airport won the bidding,” Tugade said, referring to NLAC whose members are Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc. and Changi Airport Philippines Pte. Ltd.
The other bidder who submitted bids for the Clark operations and management was X-Droid Consortium, which includes Angkasa Pura II, Globalport 900, Mazy Capital and Desco.
The airport’s new terminal building is the first of the Duterte administration’s hybrid infrastructure projects, and complements other high-impact legacy projects in Central Luzon such as New Clark City and the Subic-Clark Railway.
Clark airport is the second main gateway in Luzon. The new 100,000-square-meter terminal will double its capacity to eight million passengers a year, easing the strain on Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City and boosting development of Central Luzon.
It has an annual capacity of four million passengers. Airlines operating in Clark include Qatar Airways, Cebu Pacific, Tigerair, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines, Dragon Air, AirAsia Berhad, Philippine Airlines and Emirates Airlines.
These airlines mount flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Macau, Pudong, Incheon, Doha, and Dubai for international destinations, and Davao, Cebu, Kalibo, Tagbilaran, Puerto Princesa, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and some other local destinations.
Megawide-GMR won the bidding for the construction of a new passenger terminal when it submitted the lowest financial proposal of P9.36 billion.
