(Los Angeles, California – January 27, 2017) Qantas today unveiled its new $30-million maintenance and engineering facility at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is one of the largest commercial hangars in North America and the first specifically designed to accommodate the Airbus A380.
The 613,543-square-foot facility will be used to carry out maintenance checks on Qantas’ A380 and Boeing 747 aircraft during ground time in Los Angeles. It will also have capacity to support Qantas’ new B787-9 Dreamliner when it enters service later this year.
With 50 percent more space than the airline’s previous hangar at LAX, which was also used to maintain A380s and B747s, the facility has the capacity for four aircraft to be worked on simultaneously. Its higher capacity is expected to cut the time it takes to carry out maintenance tasks by about 20 percent. Its size means Qantas will also have the ability to bid for work on other carriers’ aircraft.
The new building has enabled Qantas to consolidate its property footprint in Los Angeles, with 40 corporate employees moving into new offices in the hangar and joining the team of local engineers.
Qantas’ previous hangar at LAX was built at the start of the jet era in 1958. It was demolished to make way for broader improvements to the airport, triggering the construction of the new Midfield Satellite Concourse addition to the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Officially opening the new hangar today, Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said it gave the airline a world-class maintenance facility in one of its busiest offshore hubs.
“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. Ultimately, this helps us increase the amount of time our aircraft can spend serving our customers.”
He added, “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.”
“As the airport with the most A380 flights in North America, which includes Qantas’ daily A380 nonstops to and from Sydney and Melbourne, we are thrilled that LAX was chosen to be the home of this beautiful new facility,” said Los Angeles World Airports Chief Executive Officer Deborah Flint.
Features of the new hangar include:
Two aircraft parking pads with walkways directly connecting the aircraft doors to the workshop mezzanine level;
A larger spare parts facility that includes two vertical lifts, enabling parts to be delivered to engineers quickly;
“Mega doors”’ constructed from a translucent material that lets natural light through when the doors are closed, plus sky lights in the roof;
Electric vehicle charging stations; and
Aircraft access docking including an adjustable tail-dock capable of supporting multiple aircraft types.
Qantas operates more than 40 weekly departures from LAX to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane using A380s and B747s. Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner services on the Melbourne-LA route will begin December 2017.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the seventh busiest airport in the world and third in the United States. LAX served more than 80.9 million passengers in 2016. LAX offers 742 daily nonstop flights to 101 cities in the U.S. and 1,280 weekly nonstop flights to 77 cities in 42 countries on 64 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with more than 2.2 million tons of air cargo valued at over $101.4 billion. LAX handled 697,138 operations (landings and takeoffs) in 2016.
An economic study based on 2014 operations reported LAX generated 620,610 jobs in Southern California with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital-improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion, $966 million in state and local taxes, and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues.
LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.
For more information about LAX, please visit www.lawa.aero/lax or follow on Twitter @flyLAXAirport, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport, and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1. Information about LAX’s ongoing multi-billion-dollar LAX Modernization Program, as well as tips and shortcuts to help navigate LAX during construction, are available at www.LAXisHappening.com.
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