Virgin Blue to build maintenance hangar at Sydney Airport
 

From Flightglobal

Virgin Blue will construct a maintenance hangar at Sydney Airport as part of a new engineering base to support its operations at its busiest airport.

The base, due to be completed late next year pending approval, will cost over A$40 million ($40.2 million) and will support up to 300 jobs, New South Wales Premiere Kristina Keneally says.

"Having a dedicated maintenance base here in Sydney, complementing those we already have in Brisbane and Melbourne, will create significant benefits to our business in terms of optimising scheduling and network operations and also generating potential revenue opportunities by offering use of the facility to partner airlines," says Virgin Blue's CEO John Borghetti.

The hangar will be for line and base maintenance, he adds. It can accommodate four narrow-body aircraft or two narrow-body aircraft and one wide-body aircraft.

Virgin Blue operates 95 flights a day through Sydney and 15 to 20 aircraft overnight at the airport every night, the carrier says.

The Virgin Blue Group currently operates 53 Boeing 737s, five 777-300ERs, and 16 Embraer E-190s, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.

The carrier's six Embraer E-170 aircraft will leave the fleet this year while its first of four Airbus A330-200 aircraft will arrive next month.

The carrier yesterday announced an order for up to 18 ATR 72 aircraft. The aircraft will be operated in the Virgin livery by Western Australia's Skywest.

Sydney Airport has welcomed Virgin Blue's decision to build a maintenance hangar at the airport, as well as the airline group's first flight today between Sydney and Abu Dhabi.

"The new hangar and maintenance base will create jobs and the new service between Sydney and Abu Dhabi provides more choice for international visitors and Australian travellers alike," says the airport's CEO Russell Balding.

The Village was sold off and leased back, Company has opened an office in Sydney. JB is from Sydney. The Tax agreements with the QLD Gov were only for 10 years. So how long before HO moves to Sydney?

Any word on what types will be maintained there? Is this the 330 and ATR base?

B737-700/800 are the same type, you will also find most of the -700's will be gone over the next year or so.

VBA and VBB finish in March VBQ/VBR/VBS/VBT have all left.

VBC VBD VBF VBH VBI VBJ VBK VBL VBM VBN VBO VBP VBY VBZ will be all thats left.

Where exactly?

Why is there enough space at this airport to build a maintenance hangar but not enough space to build a decent passenger terminal(s)?

Or enough room to park a few aircraft rather than tow things all over the place making room.

Was not long ago they demolished the old AN an TAA hangars.:hmm:

Given they've got some cash for aviation related infra structure, it'd be nice if they'd move the '777 sim from next to the jail in the western suburbs to the airport, where sims usually are.

Hey come on now people.
After all the negative posts about another large Aussie airline outsourcing maintenance overseas let's at least acknowledge that jobs will be kept in Australia.
I think it's fantastic.
Where they put it is up to SACL and VB. The SYD airport issue as a whole is another topic all together.
On that however my two cents says knock down that hanger between parking area FOXTROT and DOM5 move Rex and tiger over there and make another finger in FOX. Move the DOM5 area to the fire station near threshold 16L. Build a area in the water between the two runways south of Txy L (Narita style) and put the fireies there which gives the quick access to both runways.
Turn Dom5 into a new terminal area or VB's maintenance area.

My two cents.

I love reading the business pages and hearing of the massive airport profits whilst the various airlines are choking on lack of terminal space and consumers are paying thru the teeth to park their car (cause there is no train). Yet another story about the leaches of our industry.

As for the hanger: Well the good news keeps coming.

I'm keen to know where the 330 and ATR's will park. If its (SYD) a handful now wait for two new types to rock up.

I was over the moon when I heard about this. I hope they employ a bunch of apprentices to replenish our industry as well. It's the logical thing to do and for some reason, I think logic may be one of JB's assets.

He has said his secret weapon is: Engaged staff.

Since he's been there I haven't seen one pilot not extend or play EBA hard ball on one issue. As I said in another thread that could change at EBA time depending on how its managed.

In a previous company crew would have the EBA out on every sector with roster in hand. They wouldn't extend one minute not for a million dollars.

The company saw its staff (particularly flight crew) as the enemy and the opposite was also true. It was like going to war every day. Thats years ago now I don't miss it one bit.

So the hangar will be completed just before the maintenance contracts with SIAEC and JHAS are up for the VB group widebodies, does this mean the 777 and A330 MX will be taken inhouse?

Seriously, does anyone know where they are going to park the A330's in SYD? Stand off bay somewhere I suppose? Imagine all the "new" business class passengers having to walk down the stairs in the rain and on to a bus... :rolleyes:

New terminals must be a priority at SYD. Does anyone know if the extension of the JQ/QLink pier will be 'terminal building' or 'shed' (like in ML)?

A330s can park on 39 or 40, so long as the next door bay (38/35) had Ejet or smaller.

Bit more strategy required, but, barring breakdowns, the first 2 won't see each other and the first 4 won't meet except in Perth.

Still would like to know the when/where for the hangar (note spelling) and new gates. The SACL master plan looks a lot different to the existing airport.

Link to master plan (H271 missing! and finally H96.)

Master Plan

Probably be one of those blow up (Jumping Castle) type ones !!!! So it can be deflated , packed up & put in a trailer to take to Ebenezer where the REAL Airport will eventually be built......

Rubbish, Mr. Hat, you obviously do not fly the line, come out of the office and join the real world, you'll see how most pilots will not extend and nothing has been done about the pilot engagement survey that was completed soon after JB took over.

Would have to agree with VCQ (from our Japan base) there Mr. Hat, no change on the line when it comes to extending duty that I have seen.

Well VCQ, I do fly the line, & I recently extended - along with my flight deck partner in crime - to keep the show on the road. I'm not looking for a pat on the back, or any acknowledgment at all to be honest, as I couldn't care less. I'm mentioning it simply for the fact that, whilst I certainly don't make a habit of bending over backwards for other peoples' incompetence, I'm willing to do my bit & go "beyond the call of duty" if the circumstances warrant it.

Sometimes it does no harm at all to go the extra mile & exceed one's job description. It's not about sucking up to the boss & being a kiss-ass, "yes" man, or whatever else you want to call it. I won't hesitate to pull the pin on the basis of fatigue if I'm genuinely not up to it, & have done so on a number of occasions. Nevertheless, if I am feeling up to it, & if extending my tour of duty by fifteen minutes makes the difference between getting 178 punters to their destination vs leaving them stranded, is it really that big a deal? There needs to be a bit of give-&-take by all parties from time to time, & guys who point-blank refuse to extend by so much as one minute, purely on the basis of principle & without consideration for the big picture, are, in my opinion, juvenile. Or in other words: some people are so anal, they don't realise just how anal they are.

As for JB, whilst I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting him around the network, those of my colleagues who have met him all agree that he is a genuine guy & all-round class act. Whilst I don't doubt that from time to time he'll make decisions that will piss people off, or that he will expect his pound of flesh from us, I am quite satisfied that as long we do the right thing by him, he'll do the right thing by us. In spite of all the power he wields, things won't magically get fixed overnight, & I readily acknowledge (as I have done so on other threads) that we still have a number of issues that need fixing. However I, for one, am considerably more "engaged" than I ever was under our previous leader.

Photo/map of MX hangar location as supplied by VB:

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg610/sca...=640&ysize=640

https://twitter.com/winglets747/stat...09290267926528