Qantas A330 maintenance to return to Australia

[oz_mark]

Maintenance of Qantas' A330 fleet will return to Australian shores, the carrier says.

The Brisbane heavy maintenance facility, which employs more than 500 people, will take over work that was previously done offshore.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the company had reached agreement with the Brisbane employees about the future of the A330 work.

Qantas A330 maintenance to return to Australia

[docjames]

Interesting (good!) news - wonder why?

I suspect 767 maintenance will drop off as they slowly get phased out, and i guess there's also a critical mass factor (number of airframes - alluded to in the article) that now make it worthwhile investing in the up-skilling of the staff to do A330 work.

Any idea where it is done currently/previously (? malaysia/singapore)

[oz_mark]

I think Lufthansa Technic in the phillipines has been doing the maintenance. I suspect that it will often be the case that new aircraft types will be maintained offshore to begin with, and bring them on shore if / when they can.

I imagine the 787's will start off having heavy maintenance done offshore to begin with

[dot]

Interesting - I didn't know the A330 work was being done offshore. If I recall correctly, part of the reason the RAAF chose the A330 MRT (KC-30) was commonality with the QF A330 fleet for outsourced maintenance (or at least what EADS were claiming as a benefit).

[oz_mark]

Interesting - I didn't know the A330 work was being done offshore. If I recall correctly, part of the reason the RAAF chose the A330 MRT (KC-30) was commonality with the QF A330 fleet for outsourced maintenance (or at least what EADS were claiming as a benefit).

Maintenance onshore is done to a level, and I think this is about bringing the C & D checks onshore.

[Evan]

I think you can also read into this that the A330 will be with QF long term and not replaced by 787's in any hurry at all. Of course i am sure nobody will complain about that anyway.

As oz_mark said i understand this related to heavy maintenance checks as more of the first frames are due to start needing them.

Since i have not seen any QF A330's up at Paya Labor i would assume they are maintained in Manilla otherwise maybe.

[NM]

I think you can also read into this that the A330 will be with QF long term and not replaced by 787's in any hurry at all. Of course i am sure nobody will complain about that anyway.

There is no doubt the QF/JQ A330s will be in the QF group for a long while yet. I can't remember the last time QF sold an aircraft that was less than 20 years old. Their accounting models, partly imposed by ATO's depreciation schedule requirements, require them to hold onto the aircraft for long periods. QF has made it known they would like to be able to depreciate new aircraft over shorter periods to allow them to better compete with other international airlines whose governments allow much shorter depreciation periods. I recall reading that SQ is able to depreciate new aircraft over 3 years and EK is not far behind!

I wonder if the planned use of the BNE maintenance base has altered with the delay to the delivery of the 787s? If the 787 had been on schedule, would BNE have been the base for 787 maintenance?