Career Advice In Singapore

Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced on Thursday that it will retrench 414 local employees to cut costs following the devastating effects of the SARS epidemic on the travel industry. 'We have always said that we would consider retrenchment as a measure of last resort. I am sad to say that we are now at that point,' said SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng in a statement. Mr Chew said in an address to staff that SIA suffered an operating loss of S$166 million (US$96 million) in May, lower than the S$204 million loss in April, but this was partly because of lower fuel prices in May. Mr Chew stressed this worked out to a loss of over S$6 million per day during April and May, when SARS was at its peak.


The retrenched employees represent 1.5 per cent of the local staff strength of the SIA group, which also includes engineering, airline services, cargo and property operations as well as its regional carrier SilkAir. SIA has already cut its capacity by more than 30 per cent and imposed unpaid leave on staff to cut costs as travellers stayed away from East Asian countries for fear of contracting SARS.