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Qantas Airways Ltd has appointed Air New Zealand's head of engineering, Chris Nassenstein, as executive manager of its engineering division.
Qantas operations group executive Lyell Strambi said Mr Nassenstein would commence his new role with the airline in February.
"Qantas Engineering is one of the largest aircraft engineering and maintenance organisations in the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Strambi said in a statement.
"The operation employs more than 5,700 people at facilities across Australia and, after an extensive internal and external search, we have appointed Chris to lead this vital arm of Qantas.
"Chris’ appointment represents a rare opportunity for us to bring external experience and a global perspective to this position and our engineering operations."
Mr Nassenstein previously held senior engineering posts at Air Transat, Lan Chile, Air Canada and Canadian Airlines.
His appointment follows Qantas' recent addition of 100 engineering apprentices, who are due to join the airline in February 2010. Qantas will also undertake heavy maintenance on its Airbus A330 aircraft at its Brisbane heavy maintenance facility from early next year.