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B717 Heavy Maintenance

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Old 30th Jan 2019, 22:11
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B717 Heavy Maintenance

Folks,
I am a little surprised that closure of B717 heavy maintenance at Canberra, and its move to Singapore seems to have gone unnoticed.
Apparently about 40 redundancies of skilled/licensed labor reported.
As always, the terrible labor productivity, brought about by ratbag CASA regulation, working in lockstep with equally ratbag award demarcation, is a major culprit.
And, if you think Singapore is "cheap labor", you obviously don't know much about Singapore.
The "Australian Way" triumphs again.
Tootle pip!!
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Old 30th Jan 2019, 22:27
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The over regulated sheltered workshop syndrome strikes again.
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Old 30th Jan 2019, 22:47
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Originally Posted by LeadSled
Folks,
I am a little surprised that closure of B717 heavy maintenance at Canberra, and its move to Singapore seems to have gone unnoticed.
Apparently about 40 redundancies of skilled/licensed labor reported.
As always, the terrible labor productivity, brought about by ratbag CASA regulation, working in lockstep with equally ratbag award demarcation, is a major culprit.
And, if you think Singapore is "cheap labor", you obviously don't know much about Singapore.
The "Australian Way" triumphs again.
Tootle pip!!
Penny wise, pound stupid.

Control of engineering work process used to be considered strategic.
To support the assertion of 'uneconomic' Qantas progressively shrunk its heavy maintenance in Australia reducing the fleet to arrive at a non-sustainable cost base. That the infrastructure was largely a result of the taxpayer benevolence, wasn't noticed. That Qantas 'competitively tendered' with John Holland whilst convicted felon former CFO Gregg sat incredibly in both camps seemed not to worry anybody.

Once the facility was closed and all heavy maintenance transferred offshore, a strange thing happened.

The overseas facilities reported 'increased workload' and less availability; it became commonplace for 'customer aircraft' like those of the airline Qantas, to slip down the priority list.

With newly minted MBA running around minimising cost, at least in the short term, this remains the standard play book.
Given the relative size of the 717 fleet and the declining numbers in operation worldwide, maintenance may become harder to find..

Last edited by Rated De; 31st Jan 2019 at 01:20. Reason: amended as per Travelator
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Old 30th Jan 2019, 23:53
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Originally Posted by Rated De
Given the relative size of the 717 fleet and the rapidly declining numbers in operation worldwide, maintenance may become harder to find..
Pretty sure that every single 717 built is still in continuous service. There may be a couple that have been neglected and no operators want to touch them though.
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 01:01
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Originally Posted by travelator


Pretty sure that every single 717 built is still in continuous service. There may be a couple that have been neglected and no operators want to touch them though.
Thank you for correcting the oversight!
Had meant to edit the 'rapid decline' in numbers.

Delta airlines have leased well over 50% of the operating aircraft and have indicated their plans, with orders to replace the aging fleet. Almost the entire remaining complement are operated by US Carriers, thus it remains an interesting question as to how long the maintenance will be supported outside the USA when the only customer in Asia Pacific is Qantas?
Perhaps Qantas will shove a whole bunch of JQ A320 at them too?
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 01:53
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Originally Posted by travelator


Pretty sure that every single 717 built is still in continuous service. There may be a couple that have been neglected and no operators want to touch them though.
There is about 12 stored inc 1 scrapped (the first one)

https://www.airfleets.net/listing/b717-4-statasc.htm
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 05:21
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Feel sorry for the families that are being disrupted for the second time in recent years.
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 05:35
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Originally Posted by 717tech
Feel sorry for the families that are being disrupted for the second time in recent years.
Very sad ( and expensive) for those who uprooted families to move to the Peoples Popular and Democratic Green Republic of ACT in the reasonable expectation of long term employment.
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 08:09
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Originally Posted by LeadSled
Very sad ( and expensive) for those who uprooted families to move to the Peoples Popular and Democratic Green Republic of ACT in the reasonable expectation of long term employment.
Tootle pip!!
Yes as humans are simply impersonal units of labour cost, the spreadsheet records nothing other than legal minimum enforceable amount this unit cost must be paid.
Qantas taking the unparalleled step of grounding their fleet and locking out their staff on a flimsy and curiously unchallenged pretext, broke forever any semblance of trust.
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Old 31st Jan 2019, 23:42
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What else would you expect from QF management???
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Old 1st Feb 2019, 00:38
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Very sad ( and expensive) for those who uprooted families to move to the Peoples Popular and Democratic Green Republic of ACT in the reasonable expectation of long term employment.
Tootle pip!!
Aren't Qlink doing the heavy maintenance? I thought it was just Dash 8 guys who got a crash course on the 717 and who were already in Can'tberra.

I still wouldn't put it past QF!
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Old 3rd Feb 2019, 09:50
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Originally Posted by LeadSled
Very sad ( and expensive) for those who uprooted families to move to the Peoples Popular and Democratic Green Republic of ACT in the reasonable expectation of long term employment.
Tootle pip!!
This has nothing to do with the Canberra Government or the people who vote therein. It is a purely "Capitalist" driven decision.

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Old 3rd Feb 2019, 10:55
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I would have thought sending the B717 across to Perth would have been a better solution with lots of experienced LAMES there compared with Singapore. Can't recall ever seeing a B717 in South East Asia other than a handful at Bangkok Airways many years ago, perhaps?
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Old 3rd Feb 2019, 12:34
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With first hand knowledge and experience with ST doing work on aircraft I am very concerned about what's about to happen.

I hope the LAME's are ready to put in extra work and hours to bring the aircraft back up to standard when they hit Australian shores again.
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Old 3rd Feb 2019, 19:22
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Who's LAMEs?
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Old 4th Feb 2019, 01:27
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Cobham and Qlinks.
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Old 4th Feb 2019, 23:38
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Off shore maintenance? Bad idea. You spend a million dollars here in Australia it remains in the Australian system and goes into the various things Australians buy, including air fares. So you eventually get it back. Do the job overseas, the money is gone forever.
Not only that, as someone mentioned, off-shore you pretty much have to have an inspector behind every man. They just don't care. When the ship comes back you will have to spend many hours getting it back up to scratch.
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Old 5th Feb 2019, 01:21
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Originally Posted by tfx
Off shore maintenance? Bad idea. You spend a million dollars here in Australia it remains in the Australian system and goes into the various things Australians buy, including air fares. So you eventually get it back. Do the job overseas, the money is gone forever.
Not only that, as someone mentioned, off-shore you pretty much have to have an inspector behind every man. They just don't care. When the ship comes back you will have to spend many hours getting it back up to scratch.
That comment makes so much sense, just don't let logic and good sense get in the way of a short term money saving idea, which will probably only secure someone a healthy bonus and achieve very little positive apart from that.
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Old 5th Feb 2019, 23:19
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Originally Posted by RickNRoll
This has nothing to do with the Canerra Government or the people who vote therein. It is a purely "Capitalist" driven decision.
RollNRick,
Bit touchy there, aren't you?? I didn't suggest it did, although quite how you have them there, ( or any large aircraft) despite said ACT being a "nuclear free zone", I don't know.
Tootle pip!!

Last edited by LeadSled; 6th Feb 2019 at 23:31. Reason: typo
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Old 6th Feb 2019, 14:34
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Originally Posted by Rated De
Yes as humans are simply impersonal units of labour cost, the spreadsheet records nothing other than legal minimum enforceable amount this unit cost must be paid.
Qantas taking the unparalleled step of grounding their fleet and locking out their staff on a flimsy and curiously unchallenged pretext, broke forever any semblance of trust.
I remember when that happened and Keating tore into the Gillard Government... asked what he would have done... he said "I certainly wouldn't have referred it to the FWC for mediation... I would have just let it stay shut down for a few days or a week and let the CEO swing in the breeze for a while and I think you'd find after that time, there'd be no more dispute and no more AJ" He said the Labor Government (at the time) had "...played right into Joyce's hands when it should have given him NO comfort at all, let his little strategy collapse around him fixing the problem once and for all..."

I take it from that Mr K is no fan of AJ.
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