The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) concession agreement has already generated ₱75 billion for the national treasury in just one and a half years of private operation—dwarfing the approximately ₱30 billion that government management produced over 30 years, or an average of ₱1 billion per year, Transportation Secretary Giovanni “Banoy” Lopez said Saturday.
Lopez made the disclosure in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on August 29, as part of the DZRH SONA 2026 Series featuring the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The Transport chief said the NAIA Public-Private Partnership (PPP) result illustrates why the Marcos administration has shifted airport management across the country to the private sector, citing efficiency, faster procurement, and certainty of funding as the key advantages of private concessionaires over government operation.
“Ang alam niyo ba, ang NAIA po nakapagbigay as of date, August, nakapagbigay ng 75 billion sa national coffer natin. Alam niyo po nung nasa gobyerno pa ‘yan, for 30 years po yata na nasa government, ang naibigay lang po natin is 30 billion lang ho yata for 30 years po. Which means 1 billion a year average, more or less. Ito for like one and a half years, 70+ billion on top of the infra, yung capital outlay na sinasabi natin,” Lopez said.
He said the NAIA PPP revenue does not include the value of the capital investments the private concessionaire has made into the airport’s infrastructure, meaning the total economic contribution of the concession is even greater than the ₱75 billion revenue figure alone.
Lopez said airports under PPP now include Clark International Airport, whose terminal he described as one of the best in the country under LIPAD, as well as Mactan-Cebu under Aboitiz Infrastructure, Bohol Panglao, and Laguindingan Airport also under Aboitiz, with Davao, Siargao, and Bicol airports next in line for bundled PPP.
He said the PPP model provides two core guarantees the government alone cannot match: certainty of funding since private partners commit their own capital, and speed of implementation since private entities are not subject to the same procurement and budget constraints as government agencies.
