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http://australianaviation.com.au/2019/0 ... intenance/January 30, 2019
Qantas will send its Boeing 717s offshore for their
heavy maintenance checks
after concluding keeping the work in Canberra was not sustainable.
The airline confirmed in a statement to Australian Aviation on Wednesday
Singapore-based ST Aerospace had won the contract
to do the heavy maintenance work on the 717s following a competitive tender process.
The contract begins in July 2019.
“We’ll continue to do the majority of maintenance on our B717 aircraft in Canberra,”
a Qantas spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
In explaining the decision to take the work offshore,
the statement said the maintenance requirements for the fleet of 20 717s
over the next few years
would include periods of up to a month where there would be no work for Korr Aviation’s contractors.
This was not sustainable, Qantas said.
The end of heavy maintenance work in Canberra
follows the progressive shuttering of Qantas’s engineering facilities at Sydney, Melbourne Tullamarine and Avalon, resulting in hundreds of job losses.
Qantas’s Brisbane hangar does heavy maintenance work on the 75 Boeing 737-800s and 28 Airbus A330-200/300 fleet.
The QantasLink hangar at Canberra Airport was originally built with ACT government support for Impulse Airlines to maintain the short-lived low-cost carrier’s Boeing 717s there.
Qantas acquired Impulse Airlines in 2001, inheriting the hangar before it was completed, as well as Impulse’s fleet of 717s. The hangar is designed to accomodate three 717s (or two 737s or a single 767).
And all maintenance would be done with oversight from Qantas Engineering and Cobham staff.
Heavy maintenance involves stripping the aircraft and life-limited components, including engines, for detailed inspections and servicing.
Meanwhile, line maintenance covers tasks such as regular daily checks, minor servicing and repairing/replacing broken parts.
Cobham has flown the fleet of 20 717s for QantasLink since 2005, supplying pilots and cabin crew for the fleet. The company also conducts some line maintenance on the aircraft.
In 2016, the contract was extended for a further 10 years. Cobham told the London Stock Exchange the 10-year contract was worth A$1.2 billion.
In addition to serving regional routes mainly in Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and to Canberra, Qantas has in recent years utilised the 717 fleet on other capital city services, such as Hobart to Melbourne and Sydney, and Adelaide to Sydney.
The Qantas-Cobham relationship stretches back 25 years, given Cobham previously flew BAe-146 aircraft for QantasLink.
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