To raise its aviation profile, Thailand is deepening its role in the aviation industry. Airports of Thailand, the country’s chief airport management firm, said it will build a regional maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center in Chiang Rai, the northernmost province in the Kingdom, in addition to existing centers in Bangkok.

Although Chiang Rai’s facilities are relatively small, Airports of Thailand, which manages the Kingdom’s largest airports, sees potential in having an MRO center there to serve regional and budget airlines. As those smaller carriers have grown in recent years, an MRO center geared towards their needs would speed up service and relieve some of the workload at MRO facilities in Bangkok.

In addition, the government is already planning a large MRO facility at U-Tapao International Airport in the Eastern Economic Corridor adjacent to Bangkok, which would be part of the aviation industrial estate being built there. THAI Airways and international partner airlines have said they will invest in the U-Tapao MRO.

That would make Chiang Rai a logical site for regional carriers to get the repair and maintenance needs of their smaller aircraft taken care of without having to wait in line behind jumbo jets from global carriers.

“There is a lot of land at Chiang Rai. We have only used 316 acres of the 1,186 acres available. And being situated near [several borders], there’s a lot of aircraft that want to do MRO,” Airports of Thailand President Kerati Kijmanawat told Aviation Week magazine and website.

Kerati said Chiang Rai’s MRO facility would likely be viable in five years as it would take time to build its reputation within the industry.

Photo courtesy of https://aviationweek.com/