Qantas to close regional maintenance base
Updated
Australia's largest airline, Qantas, says it is closing its regional maintenance base at Mildura in the far north-west of the state of Victoria.
Our reporter, Jacinta Allan-Gange, says Qantas has been reviewing its operations because of climbing oil prices, and says it will accelerate its retirement of the six ageing Dash 8 aircraft it still has in service.
The planes are maintained by an engineering crew with about 22 staff at Mildura.
Qantas says the maintenance base will close on August 15 and says it is offering staff transfers to other Qantaslink locations to minimise redundancies.
Qantaslink says it will maintain existing flight operations, cabin and ground crew bases in Melbourne and Mildura to look after its remaining Victorian, Tasmanian and Canberra services.
