News
Singapore Airlines Group to cut 4,300 jobs
September 11th 2020
Singapore Airlines Group CEO, Goh Choon Phong, said yesterday “having let go of our valuable and dedicated people is the hardest and most agonising decision I have had to make in my 30 years at SIA”, after he had announced 4,300 jobs were to be lost across the airline group. (Message from SIA CEO) Read More »
In a statement issued early last night, Goh said 2,400 jobs would go from Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot in Singapore and at the company's overseas stations, in the redundancy process. (SIA statement)
Another 1,900 positions would be removed from the group’s payroll by natural attrition, voluntary departure schemes and a recruitment freeze.
The airline group had been focused on trying to ensure its survival and save as many jobs as possible, Goh said, but the prospect of a sustained downturn in global air travel – market forecasts estimate the industry will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 – left SIA with little alternative but to implement involuntary staff reduction measures.
“This is not a reflection of the strengths and capabilities of those who will be affected, but the result of an unprecedented global crisis that has engulfed the airline industry,” Goh said.
“The next few weeks will be some of the toughest in the history of the SIA Group as some of our friends and colleagues leave the company.
"We will conduct this process in a fair and respectful manner and do our best to ensure they receive all necessary support during this very trying time.”
The company has commenced discussions with Singapore-based unions to finalise arrangements as soon as possible for those affected to minimise stress and anxiety.
Singapore’s flag carrier and its subsidiaries join a growing list of airlines worldwide that are making staff redundant in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They include British Airways, Lufthansa, Emirates Airline, the Qantas Group and Air New Zealand, among many others.
In August, the Singapore government extended its wage subsidy scheme for aviation workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic until March 2021. Under the program, the government paid 50% of an employee's salary, with the calculation based on the first $4,600 of gross monthly wages. Aviation workers previously had up to 75% of their wages covered by a government scheme.
Other industries received between 10% and 50%, depending on the level of impact from COVID-19.
Singapore Minister for Transport, Ong Ye Kung, said in a Facebook post: “What we have dreaded all these months has happened."
"They [SIA Group] have delayed this workforce reduction as long as they could, but with air travel decimated by COVID-19, this has unfortunately become inevitable.”
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) of Singapore said the Singapore Airlines Staff Union (SIASU) and Scoot Staff Union (STSU) had worked with the company during the pandemic to try to "mitigate retrenchment as much as possible".
"Regrettably, these efforts were insufficient to avoid it completely and overcome the severity and prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," the NTUC said in a statement.
"NTUC stands in solidarity with the affected workers during this trying time and stands ready to assist in any way we can."
In August, SIASU president, Alan Tan, acknowledged it would be difficult to avoid job losses because of the difficult operating conditions. "We will work with the company to continue to do what we can, but given how badly the global air travel industry is doing, it will honestly take a miracle for us to keep all of them indefinitely," Tan told Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper.
The company's latest traffic report showed SIA flew about 7% of its pre-COVID-19 capacity in July, with passenger numbers down 98.6% in the month compared with a year earlier. Capacity was expected to rise to an average 11% of pre-COVID-19 levels by November.
While Singapore has relaxed quarantine requirements for inbound arrivals from a number of countries, a lack of reciprocity has meant the impact on passenger numbers has been limited. Even the safe travel corridors set up with several nations, albeit mostly for essential travel, have done little to move the needle on demand for air travel.
The opening of Changi Airport to international transit passengers in June has been some help in boosting passenger numbers and the list of approved destinations for transit passengers is gradually being increased.
In July, the company reported a net loss of S$1.1 billion (US$804 million) for the three months to June 30, tumbling into the red from a net profit of S$111 million 12 months earlier. Revenue fell 79.3% in the quarter, to S$851 million.
"Relative to most major airlines in the world, the SIA Group is in an even more vulnerable position as it does not have a domestic market that will be the first to see a recovery," SIA said in its job cuts announcement.
"To remain viable in this uncertain landscape, the group’s airlines will operate a smaller fleet for a reduced network compared with pre-COVID operations in the coming years."
SIA Group has established an internal task force to review all aspects of its operations to ensure it would be ready to ramp up services when air travel began its recovery.
This included evaluating modifications necessary to in-flight products and end-to-end service delivery to deliver additional health and safety assurances to passengers and staff.
Written by Jordan Chong
