Thailand's Bangkok Airways to provide third-party MRO

Bangkok Airways is to provide third-party heavy maintenance services for Airbus and Avions de Transport Régionalaircraft as part of its 2022 business plan to diversify its services, the company announced. President Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth said the regional airline recently had received its Repair Station Recertification for Base- and Line Maintenance (TCAR 8 Part 5) from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), “which allows us to provide high-quality maintenance services for Airbus and ATR aircraft”. He also disclosed the airline was further reducing its fleet from 37 to 30 aircraft by the end of 2022 in response to reduced travel demand due to the pandemic. It intends to return five A320-200s to lessors when their contracts expire, leaving it with only four of the type, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. It will also sell its last remaining two in-house ATR72-500s, he said. The airline already reduced its fleet of ATR72-500s by nine units between 2009 and 2019.<br/>