THE Victorian government is already focusing on aviation work from alternatives such as the Boeing 787 as Qantas reviews its jumbo jet heavy maintenance facility at Victoria's Avalon.The airline was expected to start talks with unions this week over the fate of 59 Qantas staff and 253 contractors whose futures are uncertain because of a diminishing workload at Avalon.The airline, which indicated as far back as last year that it planned to consolidate its heavy maintenance in Brisbane, said it would have periods averaging up to three months each year when there would be no scheduled maintenance at the facility.The problem stems from the fact the airline has been retiring its older Boeing 747s and replacing them with newer Airbus A380 and A330 aircraft. It had 36 Boeing 747s in 2004 but now has only 15, and this number will fall to 10 in three years. A330s are maintained in Brisbane and the Avalon work will not be replaced by heavy maintenance on A380s because the fleet is considered too small.Heavy maintenance on the 787s will not be required until well into next decade but the Victorian government is keen to get lighter forms of maintenance done on the advanced planes in the state.Qantas recently announced it would create up to 10 new jobs at maintenance and training facilities in Melbourne as the airline prepares for the arrival early next month of the first Jetstar 787.Victorian Aviation Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips said the state government would work with the airline on options, including the possibility of bringing overflow work to Avalon."My understanding from the discussions with Qantas is they haven't made a decision and they haven't closed options off and they are willing to look at additional work into that facility," Mr Rich-Phillips said. "So that's where we will engage them on what the possibilities are there."But Mr Rich-Phillips said the government was also looking at alternatives to the 747 work, which it recognised had a finite lifespan. This included work on any Qantas 787s the group might take on in addition to the Jetstar fleet. "Likewise in June we had AMSA (Aircraft Maintenance Services Australia), the Singapore Airlines engineering company local spin-off, announce an additional 100 jobs going into maintenance in Melbourne airport, which we assisted in securing," he said. "And there's at least one other prospect in the pipeline that's not public at this stage."Unions were due to start talks with Qantas this week and fear the Avalon jobs could go overseas
