MANILA, Philippines — The government will start turning over regional airports in bundles to the private sector by 2026, with the P12.9-billion expansion of Davao’s gateway the first to undergo the process.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is speeding up efforts to privatize the operations and maintenance of provincial airports by offering them to private bidders in groups.
To set this off, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon said the DOTr has tapped the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC) to work on the bundling of the Francisco Bangoy International Airport Project in Davao.
The DOTr has received an unsolicited proposal worth P12.9 billion for the upgrade of the airport. The offer covers the renovation of the passenger terminal building in the first phase and capacity expansion for future demand in the second phase.
Apart from this, the DOTr has asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to bundle another set of regional airports. Dizon said these projects are scheduled for bidding in the fourth quarter, with the contracts aimed to be awarded in 2026.
“We are pursuing several regional airports for solicited PPP [public-private partnership], and we have already engaged the IFC to work on the Davao airport bundle and ADB to work on another regional airports bundle,” Dizon told The STAR.
“We target the procurement launch for these two bundles by around the fourth quarter of 2025,” he added.
By grouping regional airports into PPP bundles, Dizon said the DOTr would be able to privatize not just the larger gateways, but also the smaller ones, which are usually ignored by investors for their low profit potential.
Infrawatch PH convenor and former legislator Terry Ridon said the government has to consider the viability more than the location of regional airports when offering them to the private sector. As such, he believes smaller airports with minimal traffic can stay with the government.
“Commercial viability is key to private sector participation in PPPs. The focus should be on the most commercially viable airport bundles, irrespective of location,” Ridon told The STAR.
However, Move As One Coalition co-convenor Robert Siy said the DOTr can take advantage of this bundling strategy to raise the commercial and profit viability of smaller airports.
“Bundling two to three small airports in a single package helps bring enough scale to make them attractive, and this strategy makes sense for cases where a single small regional airport would not be attractive for most bidders,” Siy said.
As a whole, Dizon is picking up where his predecessor Jaime Bautista has left off, and promises to turn over more airports to the private sector within the remaining term of the Marcos administration.
For the year, the DOTr is handing over P31.51 billion worth of airport PPPs to the Villar family through Prime Asset Ventures Inc. (PAVI). The Villars are eyeing the P21.27-billion upgrade of the Iloilo International Airport and the P10.24-billion facelift of the Puerto Princesa International Airport.
Dizon said the Iloilo airport PPP has been submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority for review and approval. Currently, the DOTr is talking to PAVI on the details of its proposal in Puerto Princesa.
Dizon said he plans to increase the number of airports under private control to 20 by the end of the Marcos administration in 2028.
To achieve this, Dizon said DOTr should have completed 15 airport PPPs by next year, including the PPP bundles under IFC and ADB.
There are currently seven airports managed by the private sector: Caticlan, Mactan-Cebu, Clark, New Manila, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Laguindingan and Bohol-Panglao.
