Who got the better deal?
The German side of Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) is said to be asking one uncomfortable question.
Why did one company reportedly end up facing an 11-fold increase in lease rates while another accepted an increase of only a little over four times?
According to people familiar with the discussions, that disparity — not simply the increase itself — lies at the heart of growing frustration within one of the country’s longest-running aviation joint ventures.
LTP, jointly owned by Germany’s Lufthansa Technik AG and MacroAsia Philippines of the Lucio Tan Group, has long been regarded as one of the country’s aviation success stories. For over 25 years, it has combined German engineering standards with Filipino technical expertise to service airlines from around the region.
But insiders say relations have become strained following negotiations over lease rates at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The issue arose after New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. (NNIC), the private consortium now operating the country’s main gateway under Ramon S. Ang’s airport modernization program, adjusted lease rates for aviation tenants.
THEPHILBIZNEWS sources say LTP’s lease rate increased by about eleven times.
PAL Express, meanwhile, is said to have negotiated an increase of about four times.
Whether the situations were directly comparable is open to debate. What matters, according to people familiar with the German side’s thinking, is the perception that their Philippine partner did not fight as hard for LTP’s interests as it did for its own.
That perception appears to have left a lasting scar.
Some insiders say the disappointment runs even deeper because Germany stood behind Lufthansa during the darkest days of the pandemic, providing substantial support that helped sustain operations while global aviation nearly ground to a halt.
“What did we get from the Philippine side?” one source summarized the prevailing sentiment. “Nichts.”
Whether fair or not, that feeling now colors subsequent events inside the joint venture. And those events would soon move beyond lease negotiations. They would spill into operations.
To be continued: Part 2 of 3: Why the Germans said no?