THE Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group today announced a “difficult decision” to cut around 4,300 positions across its airlines.

After taking into account a hiring freeze, natural attrition, and the take-up of voluntary departure schemes, the potential number of staff impacted will be reduced to about 2,400 in Singapore and in overseas stations.

“When the battle against Covid-19 began early this year, none of us could have predicted its devastating impact on the global aviation industry,” Singapore Airlines chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong said in a statement to Singapore Exchange today.

“From the outset, our priorities were to ensure our survival and save as many jobs as possible. Given that the road to recovery will be long and fraught with uncertainty, we have to unfortunately implement involuntary staff reduction measures,” said Goh.

As previously indicated, the group expects to operate under 50% of its capacity at the end of financial year 2020/21 versus pre-pandemic levels. 

Industry groups have also forecast that passenger traffic will not return to previous levels until around 2024, said the statement.

The statement said relative to most major airlines in the world, the 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.

In order to remain viable in this uncertain landscape, the group said its airlines will operate a smaller fleet for a reduced network compared to their pre-virus operations in the coming years.

To prepare for this future, the group said it needs to cut around 4,300 positions across Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot.

It has been mitigated by a recruitment freeze implemented in March, open vacancies that were not filled, an early retirement scheme for ground staff and pilots, and a voluntary release scheme for cabin crew.

Collectively, these measures have allowed the group to eliminate some 1,900 positions.

As a result, the potential job cuts across the group may be reduced to around 2,400 in Singapore and across SIA’s overseas stations, said the statement. – Bernama, September 10, 2020.