Two competing tenders have been made to upgrade and expand Manila’s 70-year-old airport, with the most recent coming to light this week.

Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (also known as Manila International Airport) is one of the capital’s two main airports and is the international hub for the Philippines.

It was initially designed to cater for 30mn passengers, but is often operating over capacity and as such has often been listed as one of the ‘worst’ airports in the world.

This week the Megawide Construction Corporation and EMR Infrastructure Ltd have put in a proposal worth $3bn.

This counters a bid made by a consortium led by billionaires John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan, which is worth $6.7bn.

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The $3bn expansion promises to increase capacity to 1000 flights per day and 72mn passengers per year, which Megawide states will mean increasing the current airfield capacity by 35%.

Meanwhile, Gokongwei, Tan and their consortium have said their proposal will enable the hub to handle 100mn passengers – of course, at a higher price. The group includes Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc, Ayala Corp, LT Group Inc, Alliance Global Group Inc, Filinvest Development Corp, JG Summit Holdings Inc and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. The bid was first made through an unsolicited proposal last month, and will involve a two-phase project.

Louie Ferrer, president of GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation, has said of the lower-cost competing bid: “Our detailed masterplan takes into account all possible constraints in transforming a fully operational brownfield airport. It aims to maintain the high service levels expected of a world-class airport for the next 18 years”.