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 percent 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 percent of its pre-Covid capacity by the end of its current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 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 program for its cabin crew. With those measures, which eliminated about 1,900 positions, job cuts likely will be about 2,400 across the group. The group already has started discussions with its unions in Singapore regarding the job cuts.