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Should we join Singapore Airlines in their fight to survive Covid-19? Interesting question. The answer is complicated. The relationship between Singaporeans and SIA has always been a bit of love-hate. Or pride versus perceived betrayal. Hopefully both parties emerge from the current pandemic crisis by better understanding and appreciating the other.
In particular, SIA should treat real Singaporeans more cordially as the true owners of the airline and consider them VIP as long as they fly with SIA. In spirit, at least in economy class, if we can’t afford the seats in business class. Otherwise, we will continue to look at SIA in the same way that we see the underutilized SportsHub, the gardens (white elephants) By the Bay and the irritating F1 circus of terror as irrelevant to our lives and totally alien to our national psyche.
There was a time when SIA was said to show signs of sidelining the Singaporeans in its attempt to capture the international market, especially in the West. Complaints about the airline’s alleged Pinkerton syndrome were rife. So much so that some Singaporeans were literally boycotting their own airline. They complained that SIA girls (and men) practiced double standards and tended to “look down on” Asian passengers. A resemblance to Jon Hamm would always get instant and friendlier service. Maybe SIA was deliberately targeting a certain segment of the market and couldn’t say so publicly without sounding like it wasn’t interested in any other kind of business.
When the low-cost airlines began to bite into SIA’s profit margins, the airline woke up, fought back, and went economical / regional and more realistic with SilkAir and Scoot. At that time, however, Singaporeans have discovered, like most other travelers, that SIA was simply one option among many. Or so it seemed.
But HIA is, of course, very important to Singapore, and to Singaporeans, for two main reasons.
First, it provides jobs. The SIA Group had more than 28,000 employees across three airlines and SIA Engineering in March. Due to Covid-19, last week, the airline said that around 2,400 employees would be affected by job cuts, while another 1,900 positions are being eliminated by measures such as a hiring freeze and early retirement plans.
Any shrinkage hurts a lot of people.
And we should be glad that at least three companies – Jumbo Group, Commonwealth Capital and EtonHouse – have already started offering jobs to laid off SIA employees. And employing SIA stewards and hostesses as Covid-19 Safe Distance Ambassadors has also been a good step. Well done.
Then SIA is not just a commercial airline. It is at the center, along with Changi Airport, of Singapore’s role as a global air hub – indeed, of Singapore’s very existence. DPM Heng Swee Keat rightly said: “The SIA group is at the heart of our aviation system and strengthens our position as an air hub. In 2019, SIA accounted for more than half of Singapore’s passenger traffic and cargo tonnage.
“As the main hub operator, SIA connects us with the rest of the world. Many foreign airlines choose to come to Changi because they can take advantage of SIA’s connectivity with the rest of the region.
“A diminished SIA will undermine our air center’s ability to recover from the crisis. Air travel will eventually resume when Covid-19 is under control. Until then, SIA will need liquidity to overcome this outbreak. “
There will be strong support from Temasek Holdings to ensure SIA’s viability. Fear not.
Now, it’s almost as if SIA has become more vital than when Lee Kuan Yew said, trying to settle an industrial pilot action in 1980, that he was poised to shut down the airline. So, for him, Changi Airport was more indispensable than SIA.
As the region moves up the development ladder, HIA should be at the nexus of action. It will play an important role in the continued growth of Asia in the 2020s and beyond.
But do Singaporeans feel that they have any real connection to their national operator? I’m not sure that many care that much, apparently. I ask: How many Singaporeans from the really blue street have ever walked into a SilverKris salon? Not many? Maybe SIA can open all these lounges for all Singapore passengers booked for their next flights to nowhere. Come on SIA, this is your chance to make yourself loved by your real employers.
Tan Bah Bah, Consulting Editor for TheIndependent.Sg, is a former lead writer for The Straits Times. He was also a managing editor for a local magazine publisher.
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