Thailand likely to be aircraft maintenance centre of Asia

BANGKOK, Sept 26 (TNA) – The Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) will propose that an aircraft maintenance centre be established in order to help promote Thailand as a regional hub providing airlines with full service.

CATC intends to make their recommendations once an interim government is selected.

The biggest player in Asia’s 500 billion baht a year aircraft maintenance industry is Singapore which services a fifth of the market.

“Thailand has the potential to provide more maintenance services than Singapore, but we don’t have a proper centre. Moreover, many people working in Singapore’s aircraft maintenance industry were trained in Thailand,” said Boonritr Saovapruk, CATC governor.

Analysts predict that after Suvarnabhumi Airport begins full international and domestic operations on September 28, growth in the aviation industry in terms of cargo and passenger volume will accelerate. Some fear that without a maintenance centre, Thailand will not fully benefit from greater air traffic and as a result lose out on a very lucrative opportunity.

CATC estimates it would take one billion baht to establish a new aircraft maintenance centre, and forecast that after a year the centre would see a full return on investment on the back of 10 billion baht in revenue.

CATC has trained a number of people in aircraft maintenance and will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Airports of Thailand Plc. to continue human resource development programmes. According to Boonritr, the company can instruct many more in maintenance but lack the necessary funding.

TNA