MP:
Failure to recognise the context of this post validates a fundamental concern that some engineers have no understanding at all about the significance of maintenance cost per operating hour.
Shake the head a bit guys, look up and lift yourselves out of your burrow, there is much more to an airline than just in-house heavy maintenance.
MP is stating the bleeding obvious yet again, and at the same time completely missing the point.
Without a heavy maintenace facility, and the associated experienced planners and support staff, there is simply no way Jetstar can even benchmark the 787 maintenance costs.
Furthermore, the quotations Jetstar receives from potential maintenance suppliers in future will recognise that:
(a) Jetstar has no in house heavy maintenace capability.
(b) Jetstar has no capability to calculate maintenance costs, except from what Boeing tells it - which of course are always "indicative" only.
The quotations Jetstar receives will take account of this, and be inflated accordingly.
To put it another way, Jetstar is just about to realise that it is going to be screwed.
And believe me when I say that I have had to calculate maintenance costs before entry into service of new aircraft types.