Air Transport

Australian carrier Virgin Blue is involved in a spat with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) over its maintenance practices.

ALAEA national secretary Steve Purvinas is quoted in The Age newspaper as saying Virgin Blue plans to plans to extend the period for weekly aircraft inspections to 15 days.

He also highlighted an incident that happened earlier today to argue that Virgin Blue needs to do more to improve its maintenance practices.

Virgin Blue says in response that "a component within the wheel hub of the 737-800 had failed."

"This is the first time this issue has occurred with any of our aircraft and we have been advised by the wheel supplier that it is a very rare occurrence."

It also says: "The additional statement made by Purvinas, that the airline is planning to move to a programme of less engineering, is simply false."

The airline says it is changing its line maintenance procedures and adds it has approval from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Purvinas' public remarks come as the airline and union work to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement for the airline's maintenance staff, it adds.

Purvinas was unavailable for comment when contacted by ATI today.