The Singapore Airlines Group is cutting about 4,300
positions across its airlines, which include Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and
Scoot, as it prepares for a recovery that likely is still several years away.
The total cuts represent more than 15 per cent of the
group's workforce as of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, according to its annual
report.
The group – which, unlike most global airlines, does not
have a domestic network to buoy its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic – expects
to still be operating less than 50 per cent of its pre-Covid capacity by the
end of its current fiscal year, which ends 31 March 2021. The International Air
Transport Association has projected that global air travel will not make a full
recovery until 2024.
"From the outset [of the pandemic], our priorities were
to ensure our survival and save as many jobs as possible," according to
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong. "Given that the road to recovery
will be long and fraught with uncertainty, we have to unfortunately implement
involuntary staff reduction measures."
The group implemented a hiring freeze in March and also
offered early retirement for ground staff and pilots and a voluntary release
programme for its cabin crew. With those measures, which eliminated about 1,900
positions, job cuts will likely be about 2,400 across the group. The group has already
started discussions with its unions in Singapore regarding the job cuts.