Townsville firm wins another lucrative aircraft contract That’s a paint job
A TOWNSVILLE company has won a lucrative contract to paint QantasLink planes as part of the airline’s rebranding.
Flying Colours Aviation will paint the 10 aircraft in its hangar at the Townsville Airport over the next few months, with work expected to be completed by November.
It’s understood the paint program could be worth more than $ 1 million.
The first Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 being repainted as part of the deal flew in from Sydney on Wednesday, with the repainting job starting yesterday.
The plane is being stripped to its silver shell before repainting, a process expected to take 12 days, 16 people and a total of 1100 man hours.
Flying Colours Aviation managing director Linda Armstrong said the contract was a big win for Townsville.
“In preparation we have opened a second paint facility at Townsville Airport making our operation the largest in the country and Pacific region,” she said.
“The second facility open for about a month.”
The business now employs 43 has been staff, compared to just six when they came to Townsville in 2012, moving up from Brisbane to access larger facilities. Ms Armstrong said with the second hangar the company would be working on four aircraft each month, two in each hangar.
“Having the second hangar was something we had been working towards,” she said.
“Apart from the Qantas one, we’ve also won the New Zealand Defence contract as well.”
The company is hoping to drum up even more business, with a trip planned in late October to the MRO Asia Pacific trade show in Singapore.
“It’s a large market over in Asia and we want to see if we can attract more work from over there,” Ms Armstrong said.
The Qantas commission is part of a program to repaint more than 200 Qantas and QantasLink aircraft by 2020, with the updated logo unveiled last October.
QantasLink chief operating officer Jenny Chamberlain said she was pleased the process of repainting the fleet was well under way.
“Customers and plane- spotters should keep an eye out for the updated flying kangaroo logo as more repainted QantasLink aircraft take to the skies,” she said.