Alliance Airlines Maintenance Hanger officially opened
Posted on November 7th, 2023
Alliance Airlines’ new $60 million aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility officially opened Wednesday 1st November at Rockhampton Airport, allowing about 100 highly skilled aviation jobs to come back home to Australia, as well as supporting 16 new, traineeships and apprenticeships.
The new precinct means Alliance can service their fleet of 70 aircraft right here in Rockhampton, instead of their current maintenance contracts in Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
It also opens up a raft of new opportunities for Queensland suppliers for avionics, aerospace technologies, wheels, tyres, brakes and landing gear, engine maintenance, interiors and upholstery and cabin accessories.
The facility supported around 115 construction workers and is estimated to create roughly 100 skilled engineering and maintenance jobs by 2024.
There will also be at least 16 local traineeships and apprenticeships offered, creating new career paths for young job seekers across Central Queensland.
The new $60 million MRO site was made possible through a $21 million Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan.
A further $25 million contribution was made by the Australian Government, along with $2 million from the council, to fund upgrades to the existing airport infrastructure in order to support the Alliance facility, taking the total precinct investment figure to around $87 million.
Media Statement from Michelle Landry, Federal Member for Capricornia:
Wednesday 1st of November was a great day for Central Queensland with the official opening of the Alliance Airlines Maintenance Hangar at Rockhampton Airport.
When first elected as Federal Member for Capricornia it was clear there was enormous potential to make Rockhampton Airport the gateway to Capricornia. “This project has been on the books since 2018. I was approached by the then Mayor Margaret Strelow and Scott McMillan from Alliance who asked for $25 million to do the early stages of what is now this magnificent project. After pondering a strategy as to how to get the money it was then that I had a brain wave. I remembered there was some Federal money sitting unused for the levee bank project which was not going ahead. It took some relentless lobbying at Parliament House and in May 2021 at Beef Week then Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack announced that I had transferred the $25 million through the Community Development Grant Fund and a further $21 million via a NAIF loan for the $60 million project.”
Also delivered by the Coalition when in Government was around $20 million of funding for the much-needed upgrades and redevelopment to Rockhampton Airport. The Alliance Maintenance Hanger has already delivered hundreds of local jobs and once fully operational it will employ around 100 people.
This facility will create new businesses and job opportunities in other aviation related services such avionics, aerospace technologies, wheels, tyres, brakes and landing gear, engine maintenance, interiors and upholstery, and cabin accessories suppliers.” Ms Landry said.
This is a key piece of infrastructure that will help solidify Rockhampton’s economy, while also attracting millions of dollars of investment into our region.
It is expected that around $342 million will be delivered back into our economy over the next 30 years.
NAIF: Bringing highly skilled aviation jobs back to Rockhampton Airport
