will pay consultancy firm megabucks to do it instead maybe?
or let GT have the scoop?
May 16, 2012, 6:33 am
700 Qantas engineers to go - The West Australian
Geoffrey Thomas Aviation Editor, The West Australian
700 Qantas engineers to go
At least 700 Qantas engineering staff are expected to lose their jobs over the next three years as part of a major restructure of the airline's maintenance operations.
An announcement - the result of the dramatic reduction in man hours required to maintain modern planes and the moving of more maintenance offshore - was due about the middle of the month and insiders suggest it is imminent.
The airline is expected to close its Tullamarine overhaul centre at Melbourne Airport and consolidate it in Brisbane and shut its Avalon centre, near Geelong, which performs mainly refurbishment work.
The Qantas Group will next year start taking delivery of its fleet of Boeing 787 planes, which require half the maintenance of the planes they will replace - the Boeing 767s.
These planes and other new models, such as the A380 and A330, are now self-diagnostic, slashing hours off the time required to identify problems.
Last year, the airline fought a long-running battle with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association and pilots and baggage handlers over job security.
After Qantas grounded the airline and forced the disputes to Fair Work Australia, the ALAEA quickly came to a four-year deal with Qantas, accepting a 3 per cent pay increase which was in line with all Qantas staff.
While the deal cemented job security for existing job functions, these are now being reduced because new planes such as the A380 are being maintained overseas by Lufthansa Technik, the world's biggest maintenance provider.
The problem for Qantas is that the A380 fleet of just 14 planes is too small to make onshore maintenance viable because of the high cost of the infrastructure support required.
Many airlines are opting to have their A380s maintained by Lufthansa Technik, which has state-of-the-art facilities for its 600 airline, corporate and government customers around the globe.
ALAEA Federal secretary Steve Purvinas said that the union had been "trying to get a viable solution that would enable the A380s to be maintained onshore".
"Qantas are spending money on facilities offshore that could be spent in Australia." Mr Purvinas said. "Presentations shown to us by Qantas indicate between 700 and 1200 engineer positions will go."
Qantas employs a total of 5000 engineering and support staff.
With Tullamarine and Avalon centres closed, all Qantas heavy maintenance will be performed in Brisbane.
No Perth-based engineers are expected to be affected.
Qantas has been sending maintenance work offshore for decades and it is a standard practice in the industry.
Typically, Qantas uses Luft- hansa, Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific Airways facilities