Qantas: 1260 Engineering Jobs Cut in 2012

• Qantas has this year cut about 1260 jobs from its engineering operations. 
• 200 Qantas line maintenance jobs cut in Sydney
• 250 contractors at Avalon in Victoria
• About 50 jobs elsewhere, including Richmond
• 100 new jobs created in Brisbane

Qantas is cutting another 500 engineering jobs in Sydney and at Avalon Airport in Victoria as the airline steps up the consolidation of its heavy maintenance bases from two to one.

About 200 of the latest job cuts will be to line-maintenance roles at Qantas’s jet base at Sydney Airport and the remainder mostly from heavy maintenance at Avalon Airport near Geelong.

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The airline has decided to cut jobs in Sydney because it believes it has an oversupply of line-maintenance engineers. They undertake day-to-day servicing of aircraft.

The latest cuts in Victoria are to engineers who have been reconfiguring Qantas’s nine remaining Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The last of the jumbos will be completed by the end of this month.About 250 of the workers to go at Avalon are contractors.

However, Qantas will boost its workforce at its heavy maintenance base at Brisbane Airport by 100, and the airline has emphasised that the latest cuts will result in a net loss of about 400 jobs.

It takes the total number of jobs axed from Qantas’s engineering operations this year to about 1260, and is a further blow to Victoria’s manufacturing industries.

Qantas closed its heavy maintenance base at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport in August, resulting in the loss of 422 jobs. A further 113 positions have already gone from its other engineering facility at the Lindsay Fox-owned Avalon Airport due to a reduction in the work there.

Union blasts cuts

The aircraft engineers’ union has described the latest jobs cuts as ‘‘another step towards turning our national carrier into an unsafe airline’’.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association’s federal secretary, Steve Purvinas, said under staffing at the airline was ‘‘becoming dangerous and Qantas management are disregarding basic laws of aviation safety’’.

“It beggars belief that Qantas management's answer to a recent spate of maintenance errors, many being investigated by CASA, is to sack more staff,” he said in a statement.

“Given the rising number of errors and the potentially serious nature of some of these, we’re calling on Qantas to reverse these job cuts.’’