Qantas has reached 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. The Brisbane Heavy Maintenance facility employs 510 people and was established in 2005, at a cost of $85 million. Currently, heavy maintenance on the Boeing 767 fleet is carried out at the site.
Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr 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.”
The first A330 heavy maintenance checks to be conducted by Qantas Engineering in Brisbane are planned to commence in early 2010.
