In 1997, the Philippines Government advertised for tenderers to bid for a project to design, construct and operate for a 25 year period, a new international terminal at Ninoy Aquino Airport. The successful tenderer was the Philippine International Airport Terminal Company (PIATO), which then approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japanese Export Import Bank (JEXIM – now called JBCI).

In 1998, Sinclair Knight Merz was appointed as technical advisors to the senior lenders. The first phase of the contract was to advise the lenders up to financial close. During this period, Sinclair Knight Merz worked on a number of key areas including: traffic forecasts preparation; contract documentation review; capital costs appraisal; economic impact; design and suitability; risk assessment; and institutional framework issues.

The project cost is approximately US$500 million and the facility will have a capacity of 13 million passengers per annum.