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Qantas will upgrade the cabin interiors of 30 Airbus A330s at its Brisbane heavy maintenance base, CEO Alan Joyce has announced.
Joyce, in Brisbane on Wednesday to open a $30 million hangar upgrade, said the A330 interior refit program will run from late 2014 through to mid 2016.
“From late 2014, we will be upgrading all 30 of our Airbus A330s with Business Suites with fully flat beds. Ten A330-300s for Qantas International will feature new Economy seats and 20 A330-200s for Qantas Domestic will see their economy seats refurbished,” he said.
“It will take around 30 days for each aircraft to get upgraded and we expect the program to be completed in mid-2016.”
The hangar upgrade, meanwhile, was undertaken to facilitate Qantas 737 heavy maintenance, which has been moved from Tullamarine to Brisbane
Said Joyce: “The $30 million upgrade to the Brisbane facilities includes the installation of advanced equipment to enable Qantas’s fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft to undergo heavy maintenance in the facility.”
Joyce also announced that Qantas is recruiting 30 new engineering apprentices, over 20 of which will be based in Brisbane with a smaller number in Sydney.
The expansion of its Brisbane base has come as Qantas has rationalised its heavy maintenance facilities from three sites to one, with the closure of the 737 maintenance base at Melbourne-Tullamarine in August 2012 and the impending closure of the Avalon 747 heavy maintenance facility next March, confirmed earlier this month. Today Qantas performs heavy maintenance on more than 110 Boeing 737s, 767s and A330s at Brisbane, while A380 heavy maintenance is outsourced offshore, as is expected to be the case with 747 maintenance, once Avalon closes.
Ante C
says:It’s really good that Qantas are doing a lot of cabin refurbishments, keeping up to date and ahead of the other airlines.
Soda
says:All the dooms dayers will be along soon, Out sourcing and the like! Well done QANTAS.
andrew
says:“Keeping ahead of other airlies” …are you serious. I fly business class regularly and certainly don’t spend my money on Qantas. Even on the A380, six abreast, not everybody has direct ailse access or the privacy that Cathay, Etihad et al have.
Not taking away from the cabin staff however they are let down by the product ..hate to say it however, when I fly between Dubai and Oz, Cathay or Etihad everytime….less expensive than Qantas and better business product …..just MHO
John Harrison
says:Oh wow at last I can say something good about Qantas. Great to see they are doing the refurbishments in house.
I wonder why wait so long to start, as lets face it some of the AB330’s have been around awhile now.
The economy cabins on the AB330-300s are in worse condition that the AB330-200s.
Carl Pitt
says:I fly internationally from time to time and usually in economy. I recently flew from Sydney to Bangkok and return with Qantas Airbus A330, QF 23 and QF 24 and was very impressed with the overall service and experience.. It was as good or better than any of the major airlines servicing that route.. Well done Qantas.
Lorenzo Moschetta
says:It is good to see Qantas up grading their services on A330s. Some of this aircraft are around for a while and most of them are not completely new since they came from Emirates. Although it’s good to hear that they are enhancing their facilities in Brisbane, it is a pity the closer of tr heavy maintenance in Avalon. They should up grade that sector for A380 and keep the work on 747s, even for other airlines if it is needed to. But I think we all know that money doesn’t grow on trees! =)
Air 1
says:Lorenzo moschetta Qantas don’t have any ex Emirates A330’s! That’s virgin!
Anthony
says:Eventually Qantas will bring their A380 maintenance inhouse, if they want an efficient, quality and cost effective job done. I know who will be carrying out their future C-checks on the A380s and lets just say the maintenance provider doesn’t know how to maintain their own aircrafts let alone a 3rd party customer.
David
says:We need all maintenance in-house. Australians do quality work well worth the cost. QANTAS’s records rides on it