KANGA767
Who said anything about sitting around the tarmac whilst there are no aircraft on the deck? This is about having appropriately qualified personnel carrying out the appropriate tasks. I have no problem (or didn't when I had an airline to work for) with hangar work. In fact I would encourage it as most Line people would acknowledge that the knowledge gets a bit rusty - particularly with the joke that is CAR 214 training!
Denzil
I understand the JAA A rating and it's certainly not the ideal. But at least they have appropriate training and hands on experience. What qualifications other than flying and system operations to flight crew have for which I have a great deal of respect.
ETOPS is exempted as is RVSM and unbelievably they have said that International flights must be done by a LAME resulting in less safe domestic aviation in Australia.