Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) operates an airport service business complying with the country’s air transport policy. AOT is a state enterprise under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, which are the country’s aviation regulators.
On September 28, 2006, Suvarnabhumi airport was officially opened for all international commercial flights. The government had established it as the main Bangkok international airport in place of Don Mueang International airport and aimed it to be the hub of aviation in Asia. Inevitably, the airport area and its surroundings soon had been receiving negative impacts, such as noise pollution and air pollution, as well as aviation safety issues.
The Ground Run-up Enclosures (GRE) at Suvarnabhumi airport has been constructed to test the operation of jet engines after an aircraft undergoes maintenance and the engine performance under the conditions of normal use and maximum power during take off.
To study the effects of GRE operation on aviation safety, AOT had cooperated with MTEC in applying computer-aided engineering as a tool for fluid dynamics analysis of the simulated airflow behavior during the jet test.
Commander (CDR) Sutheerawat Suwanawat, General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said that Suvarnabhumi Airport aims to be a hub airport that can support large aircrafts. One of the requirements to achieve this goal is that there must be a GRE for aircraft engine maintenance and testing, which has been used worldwide and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). There are issues regarding the suitability of the location of the testing station at Suvarnabhumi Airport. The decision was thus made that an agency with technical competence, therefore, should provide assistance in this matter, assess all possible impacts and make recommendations.
MTEC research team had done a very good job. AOT had received crucial information for the consideration of using the testing station and the feasibility of relocating the GRE to a more appropriate location. The results of this study will be given to all stakeholders for collaborative consideration. The methodology used in this study could be employed for use with other GREs around the world.
In the future, the aviation business will focus more on safety and sustainability and Thailand should raise its technological capability in order to reduce its dependence on foreign countries. Some technologies could be developed in-house, but others have to be transferred from foreign countries and then further developed into our own knowledge and skills. Certain issues could also be supported by MTEC, such as safety and environmental studies. AOT also plans to develop the airport into a “Green Airport”. All these goals are global future trends.
Lastly, AOT greatly appreciates working with MTEC since the results are not only in line with AOT’s plan within the specified time, but also valuable as a basis for AOT’s capability building. The General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport suggested that MTEC should assist in providing more technical information, especially that of the testing station.