Hi. I don't intend to be an everyday feature in this forum, or plan to dispel every rumour out there. But I couldn't help myself in this discussion.......
When I came to this business, it's fair to say that there was room for improvement. Generally, if a business doesn't make money it gets shut down - simple as that. And fundamentally we were losing money. In fact this business has never made any money since John Holland bought it. It really is admirable that John Holland have continued to invest and try to make this business work.
And its not just about the money. For a business to be truly sustainable it must also be sustainable from the perspectives of culture, safety and quality. It must be customer focussed and deliver value in what it does.
I have read through the posts below and while I will obviously have some differences in opinion about a number of the points made, I agree entirely with the ALAEA and several other posts in relation to the opportunities that are available to the business. JHAS provides a service and capability which I believe are needed within the industry. There will always be a local need for line and overnight work. Opportunities in heavy maintenance are harder, but also possible. We have a brilliant facility and a dedicated workforce of great people with decades of expertise. Aircraft break, and we have the skills, experience and facilities to fix them.
Contrary to post by “The WholeEnchilada” I would be the first to stand up and say that we, senior management, have made mistakes over the life of JHAS’s operations. These mistakes have, in part, led to our current situation. But the whole team is now pushing forward a program of activity to rectify this through a number of avenues, including pursuit of future revenue streams, cost reductions, improving our efficiency and improving our quality. Redundancies are simply awful, but unfortunately in this case necessary - and regardless of residential status we have to maintain the right mix of skills and licences. We are also having difficult but frank discussions with all our customers, investing in our safety infrastructure, putting a huge effort into our quality assurance programs and rebuilding how this business works. We are on the right track and things are improving. However if JHAS is to survive and if we are to keep this capability and these jobs, we need the support, effort and commitment of the whole industry. Everyday our dedicated employees do fantastic things and the aim is to make this business sustainable for the long term.
Everybody wants JHAS to be successful - our staff, our customers, government and the unions. Collectively we have an interest in seeing a strong and healthy local aviation maintenance industry. We all need to be working to make JHAS central to that.
Cheers