GMR disqualified for Philippines airport project

Hyderabad: A lower rating by airline and airport review and rating agency SkyTrax has thrown a spanner in the plans of GMR-Megawide consortium, which had emerged as the preferred bidder to carry out the EPC contract for the Clark International Airport (CIA) New Passenger Terminal Building (NPTB) Project last year after it submitted the most competitive financial bid, and was eyeing the O&M contract for the project as well.

GMR-Megawide had bested four state-owned firms from China after submitting a PhP 9.36-billion bid for an estimated PhP 12.55-billion project by the government for the EPC contract.

However, GMR has been disqualified for the O&M (operations and management) part of the airport project, which is yet to be awarded.

As per the terms of the Clark, the airport partner should be on the list of SkyTrax’s 20 Best Airports world. With GMR not figuring in the top 20 list, it has been disqualified.

“We also confirm that Megawide's partner, GMR, is not qualified because of the SkyTrax requirement. Megawide is not currently looking for a new partner for the operation and management of Clark International Airport. However, several operators have approached Megawide for a possible partnership,” Megawide said earlier in a regulatory filing.

When contacted, a GMR Group spokesperson said: “GMR Group and Megawide Corporation won the EPC for Clark airport in December 2017 and the construction work is underway. We are jointly evaluating the Clark O&M opportunity and the bid is due on August 20.”

“The grantors for Clark airport have specified SkyTrax ranking as the qualification criterion. We have requested changes to the qualification criterion in light of the fact that GMR Group operates Delhi and Hyderabad airports, both of which are rated as the best airports in the world by Airports Council International (ACI) in terms of Airport Service Quality (ASQ), which is the preferred airport service quality benchmark adopted by 340 airports across 85 countries. The ASQ rankings are determined by ACI through a scientific methodology. Most airport concessions insist on meeting airport service quality standards as specified by ACI,” the GMR spokesperson added.

Clark Airport, which is 100 km from Manila (Philippines’ capital), was the second airport project for GMR-Megawide consortium after Mactan Cebu airport in Philippines.

The expansion of Clark Airport is the Philippine government’s first “hybrid” public-private partnership project characterized by the government’s funding of the construction and the private sector’s operations and maintenance (O&M) of the airport.

The proposed 1,01,977 square-meter terminal area will increase the airport’s passenger capacity by eight million passengers per annum when completed in 2020. Clark Airport can currently handle four million passengers per annum.