Air New Zealand subsidiary Safe Air's immediate future may be more certain, with its Ministry of Defence maintenance contract intact.The Woodbourne-based company, which announced 92 job losses last week, said in February it would cull about 100 jobs after
Air New Zealand subsidiary Safe Air’s immediate future may be more certain, with its Ministry of Defence maintenance contract intact.
The Woodbourne-based company, which announced 92 job losses last week, said in February it would cull about 100 jobs after a large contract to upgrade RNZAF C130 aircraft was indefinitely suspended.
At the time, Air New Zealand group general manager technical operations Vanessa Stoddart told NBR it was also re-negotiating its Ministry of Defence maintenance contract (separate to the contract with L-3), which would throw the future viability of the whole company in doubt if unsuccessful.
Today, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the contract remained in place. “The restructured business is positioned to provide ongoing support under that contract.”
In 2005, Safe Air won a specific contract with Canadian company L-3 SPAR Aerospace in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence for major upgrade work on the C130 aircraft.
But delivery of the first aircraft was delayed due to software bugs.
In December 2009, SPAR told Safe Air the programme had been indefinitely postponed.
