San Miguel boss Ang to start airport construction, eyes airline

San Miguel Corp. will start work this month for a Philippine airport that’s scheduled to start servicing Manila in five to six years, President Ramon Ang said, adding he’s planning to return to the airline business by then.

The Philippines’ largest company expects the airport in Bulacan province to initially have two runways when it opens in five years, and will be expanded to four a year after, Ang said in a video call with reporters on Tuesday.

Elaborating on his plans for an airline, he said six years from now, demand for air travel would be back to normal while costs would be lower. San Miguel briefly entered commercial aviation in 2012 when it bought into Philippine Airlines Inc., but eventually sold the stake back to Lucio Tan in 2014.

Key Insights

• Sales at most of San Miguel’s businesses, including oil refiner Petron Corp. and San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc., will remain weak amid the pandemic, Ang said.
• The century-old conglomerate, with sales equivalent to 5.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product, posted a 7.59 billion-peso ($157 million) net loss in the first half of the year as one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns hurt sales.
• “The economy will recover much quicker” once there’s a vaccine, said Ang, whose foundation plans to build a hospital that would specialize on infectious diseases.