Qantas to close maintenance base at Mildura
From the ABC news site . . .
Qantas will close its regional maintenance base at Mildura.
The company has been reviewing its operations because of climbing oil prices.
It has decided to retire six ageing Dash 8 aircraft it still has in service.
The planes are maintained by an engineering crew of 22 staff at Mildura.
Qantas says the maintenance base will closed in a month.
The company is offering staff transfers to other Qantaslink locations to minimise redundancies.
Qantaslink says it will maintain existing flight operations, cabin and ground crew bases in Melbourne and Mildura to look after its remaining Victorian, Tasmanian and Canberra services.
Qantas has also decided to stop flying the loss-making Melbourne to Wollongong route from next month.
The Newcastle to Melbourne, and Newcastle to Sydney services, will be permanently halted after being previously suspended.
However, Newcastle will continue to be served by Jetstar and Aeropelican.