$300M new airport eyed

Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds shares a document with board director Ramon Tebuteb during the CPA board’s airport and finance committee meeting Friday at the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting classroom at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)

The Commonwealth Ports Authority board has started public discussions on CPA’s plan to build a new $300-million terminal to replace the existing Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport that CPA board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds described as “outdated and deteriorating.”

And since CPA and the CNMI government do not have the money to finance that big project, one of the options that CPA will explore is a public-private partnership, said King-Hinds Friday, at the CPA board’s airport facilities committee meeting.

King-Hinds said she will be creating an ad hoc committee, with members that are stakeholders and partners of CPA, to explore options to fund the project.

She said she would like to invite the Marianas Visitors Authority to be part of that committee.

CPA board vice chair Roman T. Tudela said he wholeheartedly agrees with King-Hinds’ recommendation, particularly on the financial side. He said this is a big project and that CPA needs to look at alternatives on how to finance it.

Tudela, who also chairs CPA board’s financial affairs committee, said it should be up to the ad hoc committee to determine how to finance the project. “We need to start now,” he added.

In a later interview, King-Hinds said the CPA board has been talking for over two years now the idea of renovating and expanding the existing infrastructure at the international airport that she believes is over 50 years old.

King-Hinds said Super Typhoon Yutu wreaked havoc on the already deteriorating building at the airport in October 2018.

The underlying issue, she said, is that either CPA keeps investing in an “old car” or coming up with a hard decision of buying a “new car.”

“I think the facility is outdated. Obviously, we’ve heard concerns from our partners that it’s not really conducive to a great traveling experience,” she said.

At present, she said, CPA does not have the financial capability to build a new terminal, so they have to think “outside the box” and put the issue on the CPA board’s agenda is to begin public discussions.

She underscored the importance of being transparent about how to explore different funding mechanisms to be able to realize the goal of building a new terminal.

She believes it would be good to get all stakeholders together to explore different options. And because they are looking at exploring new ideas, King-Hinds said it is very important that they are transparent as to what those ideas are and the public is kept informed about appointing different members outside of CPA.

“I think that it would be a good way of sharing information and getting the community involved in terms of putting together an action plan on how to come about with exploring ideas to fund the new terminal,” she said.

King-Hinds said the $300 million is just the preliminary numbers that are coming out from their ongoing master plan project.

She said it’s a huge amount and that she knows that CPA does not have the ability to generate that kind of money and that the CNMI government certainly does not have the money either.

“We can say, ‘Hey, we just can’t do because we don’t have the money,’ or we can think outside the box and look for different ways,” she said.

One of the options that King-Hinds is looking at and talking with different people is the idea of exploring a public-private partnership that may entail some sort of privatization of the new terminal.

“Basically, it is looking at companies who are into this type of business of developing airports,” she said.

She cited the examples of Palau and Bermuda.

In Palau, the government partnered with a private entity to design, build, and operate a new terminal. “Obviously I don’t know the full details of what their plans are, but that’s what they are doing,” she said.

In Bermuda, King-Hinds said, they are already in the construction phase with “a design, build, operate, and maintain” scheme.

What the Bermuda ports authority has done is come to an agreement with a company that does terminal construction and partnered with that entity. She said the company designs, builds, maintains, and operates the airport.

“And what they do basically is come with an agreement with the ports authority and the Bermuda government to assign some of the revenues that are raised from the collection of fees right at the airport to be able to get return on their investments,” she said.

King-Hinds said they will discuss the creation of the ad hoc committee at the CPA board meeting on Nov. 8. She already has some ideas on who should sit on that committee.

She clarified that the plan to build a new terminal at the international airport is different from the ongoing project of building a new commuter terminal.