An overseas contractor has been blamed for delays to work on Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C130 planes which could lead to the loss of 100 engineering jobs here.
If redundancies resulted it would be a big blow to Blenheim, which has a small job market and offered few prospects of redeployment for laid off staff.
L-3 Communications Spar Aerospace has been undertaking the comprehensive upgrades in Texas on two C130 planes, while three others were to be upgraded here by Safe Air.
"These (Texas-based) aircraft were supposed to be delivered back in late 2007, but still haven't been delivered," Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said today.
He said that meant the third of the three aircraft being upgraded by Safe Air was being withheld, otherwise the RNZAF would only have two operating aircraft.
"We've been pursuing this. We can understand the huge difficulty that Safe Air is under," he said.
Dr Mapp said the RNZAF was working with Safe Air to see if some other aircraft maintenance work could be brought forward to help matters.
He said the problem with the aircraft in Texas involved software around auto-pilot flight management systems. Engineers appeared to be struggling to get the issue sorted to a level the RNZAF was comfortable with.
A ministry official was in Texas managing the contract, and others would be sent to "nail down exactly what the problem is".
Saving jobs would be difficult as solving the problem could be months away, Dr Mapp said.
Finance Minister English said it was an unfortunate situation. "The overseas contract simply hasn't delivered the planes," he said.
Mr English said he would support the bringing forward of maintenance on other air force equipment.
"These are skilled people, they have waited two years for the work to turn up, so any measure we can take that is going to help fill the gap is worth while."
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said it planned to work closely with its members and Air New Zealand to ensure as few members as possible were displaced.
"These are highly skilled, relatively highly paid jobs and any redundancies will be a huge blow to the Blenheim community and to the local economy," said national secretary Andrew Little.
Air New Zealand group general manager technical operations Vanessa Stoddart said consultation began with staff this morning on reducing the workforce of 351 by around 100 positions.
