CEO of Avalon Airport Justin Giddings is still hoping that jobs can be saved at his heavy maintenance base. 80924
By XAVIER SMERDON
ALMOST 200 Wyndham jobs continue to hang in the balance with Qantas yet to announce if they have made a decision on the future of the Avalon Airport heavy maintenance base.
As revealed by Star on 28 February the airport was holding its breath as Qantas announced they would be holding a review into their heavy maintenance operations with the expectation that at least two of their bases, Avalon, Tullamarine or Brisbane, would close due to a lack of incoming work.
The results of the review were expected last month but Qantas has since stalled, saying they expect to make a decision by the middle of this month.
CEO of Avalon Airport Justin Giddings said if his base was chosen as one to close around 650 jobs would be lost. At least 20 per cent of those jobs are made up of people from Wyndham.
Mr Giddings said he was still hopeful that Avalon would be chosen to remain open.
“Qantas are saying that they have not made a decision yet and I believe that is where the situation is at,” Mr Giddings told Star.
“If a decision has been made obviously they are wasting everybody’s time by not telling us.”
Mr Giddings said while the airport is in need of funding to improve its facilities, it was also the only base that could do work on Boeing 747 aircraft.
“We’re still confident in our abilities to meet their demands but obviously we are still always nervous,” Mr Giddings said.
“Obviously if the base closed it would be bad for the area, especially Wyndham in particular which is looking for more jobs all the time.”
Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations told Star the reports of more job losses in the West were concerning.
“I understand that contrary to reports in yesterday’s paper, Qantas management has made no final decisions about how it will implement its previously announced intention to rationalise maintenance facilities,” Mr Shorten said.
“The Government therefore won’t pre-empt any official announcement from the airline.”
Mr Giddings said he was holding daily meetings with either Qantas or the government.
