Qantas opts for onshore A330 maintenance
Qantas has struck an agreement with employees at its Brisbane heavy maintenance base, which will secure the future of heavy maintenance work for the airline’s Airbus A330 fleet in Australia.
In April the carrier scrapped plans for a maintenance joint venture with Malaysian Airlines, abandoning a move that raised fears that engineering jobs would be moved offshore.
The $85 million Brisbane facility, established in 2005, employs 510 and currently carries out Boeing 767 heavy maintenance.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said that flexibilities agreed upon with the facility’s employees meant that, while heavy maintenance on the airline’s A330 fleet had been previously performed overseas, the capability would now be established by Qantas Engineering in Australia.
“We have concluded constructive talks with our Brisbane heavy maintenance employees about the future of our A330 work,” Mr Joyce said.
“The flexible arrangements we have come to, as well as the growing scale of the aircraft type in the Qantas fleet, mean that we can now establish A330 heavy maintenance operations in Australia that will be globally competitive and of the highest quality.
“I’d like to personally thank our employees for making this decision possible.”
Mr Joyce said the outcome would provide a steady workload for the Brisbane Heavy Maintenance facility into the future.
“To sustain this flow of work, it will be vital that the facility’s operations remain competitive going forward,” he said.
“We spend $1.4 billion a year to sustain and improve the operation of our engineering business as part of our unstinting focus on the safety and performance of our aircraft.”
The first A330 heavy maintenance checks to be conducted under the new agreement are planned to commence in early 2010.
The Qantas Group operates a total of 22 A330 aircraft. Jetstar flies six A330-200s while Qantas operates six A330-200s and ten A330-300s. The group is expected to take delivery of another two A330s over the coming 12 months.
Qantas now has 1,700 employees in its heavy maintenance business in Australia, located across three sites – Tullamarine and Avalon in Victoria, and in Brisbane.
Between 80 and 90 per cent of the group’s aircraft heavy maintenance is carried out in Australia, and offshore maintenance is mainly overflow work which is always overseen by its own Engineering personnel, says Qantas.
