The Department of Transportation (DoTr) is currently reviewing the revised draft Concession Agreement (CA) for the rehabilitation of the Davao International Airport (DIA).
An official of Udenna Infrastructure Corporation, which has submitted the proposal for the DIA’s rehabilitation, disclosed this to Edge Davao.
Udenna Infrastructure, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Udenna Corp., is providing technical support to Chelsea Logistics for the project, which has an estimated investment cost of P48.8 billion.
Chelsea Logistics was awarded Original Proponent Status for its proposal that includes the development, operation and management of DIA over a concession period of 30 years.
Udenna Infra AVP for Operations Engineer Manuel “Jam” Jamonir, in a text message, said the company submitted the CA last month following the instruction of DoTr to adopt provisions/language for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark International Airport.
“We submitted the CA to DoTr last month. All the legal provisions are there. The CA is the contract,” Jamonir said.
Udenna is also expecting DoTr to forward the draft CA to the National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) before the end of the month.
“Once it is reviewed by NEDA -ICC and then once everything is okay, the next step is its approval,” he said.
Under the proposal, Chelsea Logistics forecasts passenger traffic to hit 15.5 million by 2050. In 2018, DIA throughput was 4.4 million passengers.
The rehabilitation aims to increase international traffic thus the proponent plans to partner with an airport operator with an international network to facilitate new-route development by working with the government to develop new routes within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Covering an area of 209 hectares, proposed developments for DIA include a parallel taxiway, reconfiguration and expansion of the passenger terminal building, land-side and air-side improvements, and introduction of new airport technology.
The development will be executed in three phases, with Phase 1 targeted to start next year covering the rehabilitation and expansion of the passenger terminal building and the construction of a new cargo terminal building, among others.
Meanwhile, the city’s business sector has earlier urged government to fast-track the rehabilitation of the airport here as more direct international flights are expected to be established.
Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) President Arturo M. Milan said the chamber is working on the establishment of direct flights to and from Japan, Manado, and Kota Kinabalu.
Existing direct international flights at the Davao airport are to and from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Jinjiang in China.
