By XAVIER SMERDON
MORE than 300 jobs may be wiped out from the Qantas heavy maintenance base at Avalon Airport, near Wyndham.
The airline announced last week that due to the phasing out of the Boeing 747 aircraft, it would be holding a review into the future of the base.
Qantas Domestic chief executive officer Lyell Strambi said the maintenance facility in Avalon was becoming sub-scale and inefficient because Qantas was gradually retiring its fleet of B747s and replacing them with new generation aircraft.
“Over the next few years, we will have periods of up to three months at a time when there will be no maintenance work in the hangars at Avalon. In fact, there will be no scheduled maintenance for the equivalent of five months each year for the next four years, starting in March 2014,” Mr Strambi said.
“We will invite our employees, unions and other parties to sit down and discuss the challenges and look at potential options for our Avalon base. We expect to conclude these discussions by the end of October and make a decision sometime after that.”
Qantas conducts heavy maintenance on its fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft in Avalon, employing 59 Qantas employees and about 253 contractors.
In 2004, Qantas had 36 Boeing 747 aircraft in its fleet, today there are 15 and in three years there will be 10.
In May 2012, Qantas announced a consolidation of its Australian-based heavy maintenance into Brisbane and Avalon and flagged its intention to ultimately reduce to one Australian heavy maintenance facility.
A Qantas spokesperson told Star the airline would work closely with the Australian Workers Union to ensure the best outcome for the workers was achieved.
