Under the latest proposal, all heavy maintenance on the airline's Boeing 747s, 767s and 777s, – the latter which start arriving at the end of this month – will be outsourced to a specialist, large-scale maintenance centre in Asia or Europe, says the airline. The move would see around 600 jobs cut from the 2,100-strong ANZES workforce, primarily in Auckland. Long-haul aircraft heavy maintenance is no longer a viable business for ANZES in the face of increased competition from large-scale international maintenance providers, particularly in Asia, which have more competitive cost structures and are closer to their customers, says Craig Sinclair, Air New Zealand Group general manager ventures. At the same time, Air New Zealand's own heavy maintenance requirements are declining as it starts to take delivery of new long-haul aircraft. "As a result ANZES cannot operate a viable heavy maintenance programme solely based on Air New Zealand's future fleet.