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Virgin Blue ventures into
aircraft maintenance
Virgin Blue Holdings, Australia's second-biggest airline,
is set to build an A$24 million base at Brisbane
Airport that will be able to service its own and
other carriers' aircraft.
Construction will begin in the next four months in
order to get the ready by the end of 2005, chief executive
Brett Godfrey announced earlier this month. The base
will employ 150 people over the next five years.
A success story, Virgin Blue has grabbed 33 per cent
of Australia's domestic air market since it started
with two planes in 2000, but Godfrey is looking for
new business opportunities to fend off competition
from Qantas Airways and its budget carrier Jetstar,
which began flying this month.
“There are many airlines that fly into Australia
that have Qantas as their sole provider because they're
the only ones that have been capable of doing that
level of maintenance,” Godfrey said. “Anything
where Qantas has a monopoly we're going to have a good
look at.”
Depending on what contracts are won, Virgin Blue's
maintenance facility will be able to service various
makes of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, as well as the
airline's own fleet of Boeing 737s.
Virgin Blue also opened an A$45 million aviation training
centre in Brisbane last month as a joint venture between
Virgin Blue and Alteon Training LLC, a subsidiary of
Boeing Co.
With a little help from Austrade
Mansfield food processing company, Alice Langton’s,
has broken into the world of international business
by securing two substantial export deals to South America
and the South Pacific.
The company, a producer of chocolate and fruit liqueur
sauces and chocolate liqueur body paints, will supply
its products to food retailers in Chile and New Zealand.
It will now use these deals as a platform to expand
its export activities in other markets across the world.
Owner of Alice Langton’s, Doug George, said
the company had received crucial assistance from Tradestart
Bendigo and Regional Development Victoria, in reaching
the agreements.
“Austrade introduced us to a food buyer from
Jumbo Supermarkets in Chile in August 2003, and after
a series of tastings and negotiations we secured a
supply arrangement. The Jumbo supermarket chain has
more than 85 outlets across Chile - the deal is a fantastic
result for our company,” George said.
“Our exports to New Zealand are the result of
a recent business trip to Auckland, where Austrade
once again provided invaluable assistance. I would
encourage all businesses that believe they are export
capable to expand their horizons offshore, and ensure
they speak with Austrade in the first instance”,
states George.
Alice Langton’s is a participant in Austrade’s
New Exporter Development Program (NEDP), which provides
Australian businesses with advice and information about
getting into exporting. Government invests in independent medical research
The National Health and Medical Research Council’s
CEO Professor Alan Pettigrew welcomed this month’s
budget announcement of an extra $200 million over seven
years to support infrastructure costs in independent
medical research institutes.
"The Government’s injection of funds will
assist independent medical research institutes in covering
overhead infrastructure costs related to their research
funding," said Professor Pettigrew. "This
has been an important issue for some time now and we
welcome the Government’s response," he added.
The funding is a result of the Investment Review of
Health and Medical Research that found the overhead
infrastructure costs for these institutes to be considerable.
The independent institutes will now be supported for
infrastructure costs related to their NHMRC funding
at the same rate as Universities who are funded through
the Department of Education Science and Training.
Professor John Shine, Chair of the NHMRC welcomed
the Government’s support, saying that the funding
will assist these institutes to grow and undertake
new work in challenging areas of health research. "The
National Health and Medical Research Council looks
forward to the release of the report of the Investment
Review of Health and Medical Research and to working
with the Government to implement the full range of
the Review’s recommendations," he said.
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