Singapore Airlines (SIA) is imposing a hiring freeze and considering other measures in light of declining business, depending on how the Covid-19 situation evolves, an SIA spokesperson told Mothership on Tuesday (Feb. 25).

Cancelling flights due to low demand

SIA announced on their website earlier this month that they would be cancelling selected flights due to low demand during the Covid-19 outbreak.

These cancellations, they said, will result in a 7.1 per cent decrease in their scheduled capacity between February until the end of May of this year.

"The SIA Group has taken swift action to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. We will continue to monitor the situation, and be nimble and flexible in adjusting our capacity to match the changing demand patterns in the market," the airline said in its announcement.

General recruitment freeze

In a statement shared with Mothership, an SIA spokesperson said, "Over the last three years, SIA’s Transformation Programme has strengthened our revenue generating capabilities and driven operational efficiencies. This means we are able to tackle Covid-19 from a position of strength."

The SIA spokesperson confirmed its recruitment freeze for all its ground positions in response to Covid-19, adding, "We are closely monitoring the evolving situation and will be decisive in implementing any additional measures that may be needed. However, we will not do anything that compromises the SIA Group’s long-term competitiveness."

The Straits Times (ST) reported that they had learned that the additional measures could include the possibility of asking staff to take voluntary no-pay leave.

SIA did not comment, however, on these reported plans, which also surfaced in a Hardware Zone forum thread.

Meanwhile, in early February, Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific asked its 27,000 employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave.

Message from SIA CEO to staff

ST also published a copy of a note sent on Monday, Feb. 24 by SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong to all SIA staff.

The airline's spokesperson also confirmed with Mothership that the the SIA CEO sent an internal memo out to all its staff this week.

The note, which was published in full in the ST article but has been subsequently removed, emphasises the importance of the well-being of both passengers and those in the "SIA family, especially those in the front line and our operating crew".

Goh also acknowledged the significant impact of Covid-19 on air travel, in particular to Asia, as well as the actions taken by SIA to "mitigate the impact of this significant drop in demand".

These actions have included an immediate reduction to their capacity to China and the temporary suspension of more than 3,000 flights from February to end-May.

The note also announced the recruitment freeze, as well as the suspension of all non-essential duty travel.

Goh added that SIA's commercial teams are "working closely with tourism agencies and travel partners all around the world to aggressively drive sales, and jointly promote air travel to and through Singapore".

He acknowledged that while "there are strong headwinds", SIA Group "has successfully navigated past challenges such as 9/11, SARS and the 2008 global financial crisis".

In the wake of SARS in July 2003, SIA let go 26 pilots and 156 cabin crew, reported CNN.

This came after a first round of retrenchments in June 2003, when SIA announced more than 400 job losses, and also cut the salaries of its pilots and first officers.

According to CNN, then-CEO Chew Choon Seng said on June 19, 2003 that SIA suffered a loss of S$204 million for airline operations in April of that year and about S$166 million in May.

Top images via Facebook / Singapore Airlines and Singapore Airlines website.