Airbus 330 maintenance in Australia

The airline has been severely criticised for sending jobs overseas and this is a step towards retreating from that practice.

This move helps preserve jobs of the staff at the Brisbane heavy maintenance base that employs 500 people. This maintenance work had been done earlier in the Philippines.

The airline has been moving aggressively to maintenance work overseas and the unions have tied this to a deteriorating safety record at the airline. Several other companies in Australia including ANZ have also been criticised for moving jobs overseas as the unemployment rate in Australia creeps up.

Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive said that the airline decided to bring jobs back to Australia after the union agreed to a more flexible roster. He added that jobs in Brisbane would have become redundant since the Boeing 767s had been retired from the fleet.

Steve Purvinas, federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said that while the announcement was good news, there would be no increase in jobs as a result of this move. He called for more investment in Qantas' heavy maintenance business so that all work could return to Australia.

Qantas stated that 80 to 90 per cent of its heavy maintenance work is done in Australia.