Air NZ to cut 100 jobs after Hercules refit delay

[stu]

I hope this is the right board to post this...

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10626511

Air NZ to cut 100 jobs after Hercules refit delay

Air New Zealand engineering subsidiary Safe Air in Blenheim is planning to cut 100 jobs from its workforce, after delays in a contract to refurbish Air Force Hercules aircraft.

In a press release just issued, Air New Zealand group general manager of technical operations Vanessa Stoddart said consultation had begun with staff this morning on reducing the workforce of 351 by around 100 positions.

This was as a result of more than 18 months of delays in the delivery of Royal New Zealand Air Force C130 aircraft for major upgrade work under a contract with Canadian company, SPAR Aerospace.

SPAR, the lead contractor in the C130 overhaul programme, told Safe Air of an indefinite postponement to the programme in December last year.

The release goes on to say that SPAR Aerospace in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence awarded Safe Air the contract in 2005 to carry out the work on four RNZAF C130 aircraft.

"As a result Safe Air increased its workforce and made significant investments in equipment and facilities for the planned arrival of the first aircraft in August 2008."

The work included "major structural refurbishments, such as the replacement of the centre wing, as well as modifications to major avionics systems, including installation of a new "glass" flight deck, navigation and communication suites and night vision."

Stoddart said Safe Air was advised of successive delays for the scheduled arrival of the first aircraft - culminating in the advice in December that the first aircraft was delayed indefinitely.

"We have worked hard to mitigate the impact of this lengthy delay through generating additional work for Safe Air, including transferring Air New Zealand aircraft maintenance to Blenheim to keep staff employed while awaiting the arrival of these military aircraft."

"However, due to the uncertainty of work in the pipeline created by the SPAR notification, we have now reached the point where we need to reduce the workforce by around 100 people. If we don't make this tough move, Safe Air will incur significant losses that would put the jobs of the remaining workforce in jeopardy."

Stoddart said consultation with the affected staff and union representatives was expected to finish in March, when the final decision on the exact number of job losses would be determined.

[phil]

delayed indefinitely?

That's interesting.

[motoxjase]

We so shouldve tagged an order with the Ozzie C-130J deal but Labour and all its wisdom.......................

[Kenny]

So.. by the time everythings sorted, it will be time to buy the new fleet?

Kiss $$$$$$$$$$$$$ good bye

[mumbles]

Nice to see TV3 (sorry Stu! maintaining the NZ media's high accuracy standards with its continual references to "Air Safe" amongst other things in tonights report.

Reminds me of when Kiwi Red suffered its fatal mid-air, and TVNZ decided to refer to the team as "Red Kiwi" for the duration.

There must be more of this story to emerge, as merely stating "indefinite delay" is completely inadequate on the part of the contractor.

[lumpy]

Feb 16, 2010 19:02:11 GMT 12 mumbles said:

There must be more of this story to emerge, as merely stating "indefinite delay" is completely inadequate on the part of the contractor.

Couldnt agree more Mumbles , I just hope somebody has the balls to say " we actually need those aircraft " , sooner rather than latter !!

[mumbles]

Feb 16, 2010 18:26:59 GMT 12 motoxjase said:

We so shouldve tagged an order with the Ozzie C-130J deal but Labour and all its wisdom.......................

Yes and no, given how much baggage the J model brought with it. We would have some nice young airframes, but the service entry wouldn't have been all roses (based on others experiences) from what I gather.

[corsair67]

This news does not sound good - not only for the 100 people who lose their jobs, but also the RNZAF.

I just hope the project hasn't become too big for SPAR Aerospace.......

[Kereru]

Government spending cuts?

All will be revealed in Mr English budget? ;D

Cheers

[corsair67]

Some more detail from stuff.co.nz -

"Air Safe" - see not only TV-3 gets it wrong......





Overseas hold-up hits Air Safe 100 jobs
NZPA
Last updated 17:14 16/02/2010


An overseas contractor has been blamed for delays to work on Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C130 planes which could lead to the loss of 100 engineering jobs here.

Air New Zealand announced it planned to cut about 100 aircraft engineering jobs at its subsidiary Safe Air in Blenheim as the Defence Ministry had indefinitely postponed its contract for major upgrade work on its aircraft fleet.

If redundancies resulted it would be a big blow to Blenheim, which has a small job market and offered few prospects of redeployment for laid off staff.

L-3 Communications Spar Aerospace has been undertaking the comprehensive upgrades in Texas on two C130 planes, while three others were to be upgraded here by Safe Air.

"These (Texas-based) aircraft were supposed to be delivered back in late 2007, but still haven't been delivered," Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said today.

He said that meant the third of the three aircraft being upgraded by Safe Air was being withheld, otherwise the RNZAF would only have two operating aircraft.

"We've been pursuing this, we can understand the huge difficulty that Safe Air is under," he said.

Dr Mapp said the RNZAF was working with Safe Air to see if some other aircraft maintenance work could be brought forward to help matters.

He said the problem with the aircraft in Texas involved software around auto-pilot flight management systems. Engineers appeared to be struggling to get the issue sorted to a level the RNZAF was comfortable with.

A ministry official was in Texas managing the contract, and others would be sent to "nail down exactly what the problem is".

Saving jobs would be difficult as solving the problem could be months away, Dr Mapp said.

Finance Minister English said it was an unfortunate situation. "The overseas contract simply hasn't delivered the planes," he said.

Mr English said he would support the bringing forward of maintenance on other air force equipment.

"These are skilled people, they have waited two years for the work to turn up, so any measure we can take that is going to help fill the gap is worth while."

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said it planned to work closely with its members and Air New Zealand to ensure as few members as possible were displaced.

"These are highly skilled, relatively highly paid jobs and any redundancies will be a huge blow to the Blenheim community and to the local economy," said national secretary Andrew Little.
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Air New Zealand group general manager technical operations Vanessa Stoddart said consultation began with staff this morning on reducing the workforce of 351 by around 100 positions.



www.stuff.co.nz/business/3333912/Overseas-hold-up-hits-Air-Safe-100-jobs

[stu]

Feb 16, 2010 19:02:11 GMT 12 mumbles said:

Nice to see TV3 (sorry Stu! maintaining the NZ media's high accuracy standards with its continual references to "Air Safe" amongst other things in tonights report.

Duly noted at the time (by a certain aviation enthusiast on the crew who shall remain nameless) and the news department now well aware.

Must dash - supposed to be mixing Nightline.

[beagle]

Bring back Samantha Hayes

Now there is another thing we are forgetting here.

I thought the skyhawks were put outside to make room for the C130's arrival for modifications, so in reality, if one hasn't turned up, then why are they still outside.

[nige]

As per the last news report above (and covered on Radio NZ Checkpoint yesterday), if the main issue is:

"He said the problem with the aircraft in Texas involved software around auto-pilot flight management systems. Engineers appeared to be struggling to get the issue sorted to a level the RNZAF was comfortable with".

I take it otherwise that the other structural upgrades performed thus far on aircraft 1 & 2 were successful, the issue simply is related to the software / flight management system integration?

And reading between the lines of the Defmin, it would appear that aircraft 3 could possibly go to Safe Air for refurbishment (thus preserving the 100 jobs) whilst these software/fms issues are rectified, except that if that were to happen then the RNZAF would be down to only two operational C130's (which naturally would be unacceptable for various reasons). Although for this to happen I hazard a guess that:

1. The MoD would need assurance that L3 Spar would be able to complete the software integration issue within an acceptable timeframe (except it appears at this point in time that this is unlikley as it appears that L3 Spar keep shifting the completion timelines - according to the Defmin on RNZ yesterday).

2. That the Govt ought to also secure/lease some ex-USAF (or RAAF) C130H's in the interim now to ensure the RNZAF can deliver the outputs required of the C130 including civil emergencies in the Pacific (as at present). C130H's are being retired worldwide to make way for C130J's etc, so surely it would be possible to quickly sort something out with the US, or Australian Govts etc.

Meethinks that this option to secure/lease second hand C130H's in the interim should proceed (if not already) rather quick smart pronto right NOW! (Actually this should have happened back in perhaps 2007/08 when it became apparent there would be delays and aircraft 2 was despatched for the refurb, thus meaning since about 2007 or thereabouts the RNZAF was down to only 3 C130's anyway - totally unacceptable).

Because if it appears that L3 cannot deliver on this software integration issue, then basically the RNZAF and Govt is stuffed as aircraft 1 and 2 surely would never become operational (or at least have limitations applied). We would be down to 3 operational legacy C130's.

Any second hand leased C130H's could go to Safe Air possibly for essential maintenance to get them up to standard (although alas it may not mean the preservation of those 100 jobs - maybe a smaller number instead).

Regardless of any short term fix, let's hope the soon to be released Govt Defence Whitepaper gets some balls and recommends the immediate purchase of some C130J's (or C17's) to get the RNZAF's logistical aircraft fleet sorted once and for all.

[phil82]

The J model merely looks like a C130, but it is virtually a new aircraft and substantially different from the old one. Those changes also created issues; the program has been the focus of a great deal of controversy, and of all the C130 operators around the world, there are many who, like NZ, didn't opt to buy it! Those that did found it wasn't all according to Hoyle! The RAF still isn't operating them in some roles routinely carried out by the older aircraft.

I doubt anyone is actively working on "borrowing" some spare Hercs from anyone we know, for the simple reason that they are more than likely unavailable, for a zillion reasons, but more importantly operating dissimilar types is not a good idea.

[corsair67]

Apparently the RAAF have a few C-130Hs sitting around after being put out to pasture.......... ;D

And they're only about 32 years old! ;D

[ErrolC]

Feb 17, 2010 13:06:25 GMT 12 corsair67 said:

Apparently the RAAF have a few C-130Hs sitting around after being put out to pasture.......... ;D

And they're only about 32 years old! ;D

And ours are 30-what? And do the Aussie ones have fewer landings?

[phil82]

Feb 17, 2010 13:40:59 GMT 12 ErrolC said:

Feb 17, 2010 13:06:25 GMT 12 corsair67 said:

Apparently the RAAF have a few C-130Hs sitting around after being put out to pasture.......... ;D

And they're only about 32 years old! ;D

And ours are 30-what? And do the Aussie ones have fewer landings?

The first three Hercs were purchased , or rather collected from the US, in 1965, and two the following year., which makes them 45 years old! I flew to Singapore in o2 in 1966!!!. Which makes me even older! There are Herc Captains half the age of the aircraft!

[obiwan27]

Our Herks would be 44-45 years old. Seems prudent to get some kind of backup a/c in place in the shape of ex-RAAF Herks if feasible. The Defence White Paper, if recommending a replacement aircraft would not of course aleviate the current crisis.

[phil82]

Given our penchant for cocking up contracts, we should buy the A400M, which is only about 7 years behind schedule, and millions over budget. We should get them, if we order now, oh....sometime in the mid 2020s......

[phil82]

One of the 1st Captains of those first three was one Carey Adamson... later to be CAS and CDS.