Melbourne, July 27, 2009 – John Holland Aviation Services (JHAS) has today been awarded a new contract to carry out heavy maintenance in Melbourne on Virgin Blue’s fleet of EMBRAER jets.  Virgin Blue currently has 19 E-Jets with that number expected to grow to 23 by the end of 2011.

The contract is for a 10 year period commencing in August this year.  Virgin Blue began introducing the brand new Brazilian manufactured aircraft to its fleet in August 2007 to allow the airline to launch Capital Jet services between Sydney and Canberra as well as provide greater fleet flexibility across the route network and the ability to venture further into regional Australia with the right-sized aircraft.

The new contract is in addition to the existing contract between Virgin Blue and JHAS to provide heavy maintenance to many of the aircraft in Virgin Blue’s Boeing 737 fleet.

Andrew Henderson, General Manager, John Holland Aviation Services, said: “We are clearly delighted with being appointed as the provider of Virgin Blue’s EMBRAER heavy maintenance and look forward to strengthening our partnership with Australia’s second biggest airline.”

He added, “This new contract consolidates our reputation as the leading MRO in the Australian aviation sector.  Our new work on Virgin Blue’s EMBRAER jets, along with our existing work on their 737 fleet showcases Australia’s onshore aircraft maintenance capability.  JHAS is the only independent MRO in the Asia Pacific region to feature EMBRAER maintenance capabilities.”

Virgin Blue Chief Operations Officer, Andrew David, said, “We have a terrific working relationship with JHAS and are pleased to be taking it to a new level by awarding them the contract to take care of our EMBRAER heavy maintenance requirements.”

He continued, “The team has a proven track record and for the past 18 months has been providing Virgin Blue with excellent service in regards to some of the carrier’s 737 heavy maintenance requirements. JHAS has also carried out all the recent winglet installation work on the 737 fleet.”  The multi-million agreement is expected to generate over 200,000 man hours of maintenance activity at JHAS which is based at Melbourne Airport and employs over 300 specialised aircraft maintenance engineers.

Virgin Blue’s own engineering company “Virgin Tech” will continue to provide line maintenance to both the 737 and EMBRAER fleet.

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For further media information please contact:

Richard Baker
External Communications Manager
John Holland 
Mobile: 0400 809 116
Email: richard.baker@jhg.com.au