More than 100 people took the opportunity last Tuesday to see for themselves the inner workings of a Bombardier plane undergoing maintenance at the state-of-the-art hangar at Tamworth airport.

QantasLink chief executive officer John Gissing took the attendees on a tour before speaking about his rise up the ranks of the airline industry. 

“It was great to be able to kick off the new year with the Junior Chamber of Commerce event in Tamworth,” he said.

“Attendees got the opportunity to go on board a Q400 aircraft and see the maintenance process first-hand and talk with our engineers personally.

“It was also great to be able to reinforce in person QantasLink’s ongoing sponsorship and commitment to the work of the junior chamber in Tamworth and to share career insights and experiences.”

QantasLink employs about 100 people in Tamworth, where all its Q-series planes are maintained, including engineer and customer service and finance support teams.

The regional carrier is this financial year’s sponsor of the junior chamber, which is made up of young business men and women aged 18 to 35 seeking network opportunities.

Marjolyn Thomas, executive officer of Tamworth Business Chamber, said the event was both fun and informative.

“QantasLink has a really good reputation of supporting the next generation coming through and they have some really good training opportunities within their organisation,” she said.

“They were very keen to really make their sponsorship work, so we were lucky enough to get John Gissing come up to have a chat to the junior chamber.

“But the junior chamber thought it was such a great opportunity that wanted to invite the whole of chamber to attend the event.

“It’s always great fun to have a behind-the-scenes look at the businesses in and around the Tamworth region.”