Qantas has opened its new hangar at Los Angeles International airport which will be used for maintenance on its Boeing 747-400s and Airbus A380s.
The Oneworld carrier says that the 5.7ha facility is about 50% larger than the airline’s previous hangar at the airport, and will be able to hold four aircraft simultaneously.
The additional size is expected to cut the time taken to carry out tasks by around 20%, and could allow it to bid for third-party MRO work.
Its priority will, however, be maintaining the A380s and 747s that the airline flies to Los Angeles, and in future its 787-9s, says chief executive Alan Joyce.
“We can have up to four aircraft on the ground at LAX at once and some are here for around 14 hours, so it makes sense to have a facility where we can make good use of that time by doing scheduled maintenance,” he says.
“Australia will always be where we do the majority of our maintenance, and we’ve invested heavily in our onshore facilities in recent years, but LAX is our next biggest transit point so we’re pleased to now have a facility that reflects that.”
FlightGlobal schedules data shows that airline flies from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles, while it also operates a daily tag flight to New York-JFK.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
