Qantas Restructuring Resulted to Dismissal of 500 Heavy Maintenance Jobs

29th May 2012

The restructuring of Qantas Airways' operations in Victoria and Queensland states will cost 500 jobs mostly from its engineering and heavy aircraft maintenance departments.

It is believed that there are 422 jobs in Tullamarine airport in Melbourne that will go mainly from its heavy maintenance unit.

In addition, 113 more jobs will be sacked in Avalon, near Melbourne, as it retired this year five of its 747 aircraft.

On the other hand, there will be 30 new line maintenance jobs in Melbourne and another five in Sydney.

The transfer of Qantas' 737 heavy maintenance in Brisbane is expected to create other jobs there.

The airline management promised the affected employees of an attractive relocation package to Brisbane in case they (employees) opt to move to work there.

The airline says that with the restructuring program, more specifically the consolidation of its heavy maintenance and various engineering operations, the company is seen to save up to a hundred million dollars per year.

The disclosure came immediately after a thorough study on the airline's three separate heavy maintenance facilities in Brisbane and Avalon and Tullamarine both in Melbourne.

Qantas maintained that it's not economically viable for the company to keep three facilities spread across three separate locations, thus the consolidation.

Alan Joyce, Qantas' CEO, said the company, in close coordination with the Victorian government, is willing to help the affected employees.

He further said that the affected highly skilled maintenance engineers need not worry because there are several businesses which are willing to hire them. In fact, many companies are already making contacts with Qantas to show their interest in hiring the affected workers.

The price tag the company is expecting to incur in its restructuring program is around $50 million. The assessed value of the airline's transformation for the latter half of its fiscal year is pegged at $250-$260 million.