MASE managing director Mohd Roslan Ismail said he hopes the JV will be operational next year.
“Qantas requires more time to explain to its staff further about the deal and also to address some engineering issues related to its aircraft that surfaced recently,†Roslan notes.
Qantas’ problems started on 25 July 2008 when QF 30, a 747-400 aircraft on a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne diverted to Manila following a loss of cabin pressure. The flight had originated from London Heathrow.
On 12 August Qantas pulled six 737- 400s from service for cross-checking maintenance records relating to aircraft modification work carried out at one of its Australian MRO facilities. The airline had discovered an irregularity with paperwork for these aircraft during an internal integrity check of maintenance records.
In the third incident on 8 October QF 32, an A330-300 aircraft on a flight from Singapore to Perth had a sudden change of altitude during cruise at 37,000 ft. The aircraft was diverted to Learmonth, an air force base. The JV’s hangar to be located at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) would have the capacity to accommodate two Airbus A380s and two narrow body aircraftat any one time. The yet-to-be named company would have the capability to do heavy maintenance for B747-400, B777, A330 and A320 aircraft.
The JV has plans to expand capability to include the A380 at a later stage as Qantas had ordered 20 aircraft and MAS six.
While unclear when and even if the joint venture between MAS Aerospace Engineering and Qantas will take off, Qantas relies on Lufthansa Technik Philippines for its overflow maintenance work.
Qantas’ plan to tap the then rapidly growing Asia Pacific MRO market which is expected to reach US$15 billion by 2016.
Qantas had planned to move out the overflow maintenance for the carrier and other subsidiary airlines to the JV. The Australian flag carrier had identified Asia as a major growth market having invested in Singaporebased low cost carrier Jetstar Asia Airways and Vietnam’s Pacific Airlines which was re-launched as Jetstar Pacific in May 2008 in Hanoi.
Qantas has overflow MRO work contracted to Lufthansa Technik Philippines in Manila, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co and Singapore Airlines Engineering Co.
A senior Qantas engineer in Sydney said: “It is anyone’s guess whether the JV will take off . If Qantas needed time to explain to its staff about the proposed JV it would have taken two years,†the engineer said, declining to be drawn into further comment.
In a separate development MASE expects a JV, signed last year, for turbo prop aircraft maintenance with Italy-based Alenia-Aeronvali to be operational next year.
The JV to be located at Subang Airport, 22km outside Kuala Lumpur will offer heavy maintenance for ATR and other turbo prop aircraft. Malaysian LCC’s FireFly and MASWings would be the main customers. Both carriers, which are subsidiaries of MAS, are ATR72-500 operators.
The JV plans to also tap the virtually unexploited MRO market for turbo prop aircraft in the Asia Pacific and passenger-to-freighter conversions for the ATR42 and ATR72. In Southeast Asia, Cebu Pacific, PAL Express, Bangkok Airways, Nok Air and Berjaya Air are all ATR72 operators.
Currently about 188 turbo prop aircraft operating in the region have to be flown to France for heavy maintenance. Over the next three years 275 new turbo props will go into service.