SIA: All Trainee Pilots & Cabin Crew Won’t Be Hired; Half Already Let Go Of Immediately

Once again, it would seem that the dreams of those who wish to join one of the most prestigious airlines in the world have been dashed.

This is in addition to the 2,400 staff that were retrenched last week.

This might not come as a surprise seeing as SIA (Singapore Airlines) Group suffered a 98.3 per cent year-on-year drop in passenger carriage in August as demand for air travel continues to drop because of, you guessed it, COVID-19.

All Trainees To Be Let Go

The Straits Times reported that already half of the cadet pilots and cabin crew were already let go while the other half will have to leave once their training is completed.

Makes you wonder how they determine who goes first, doesn’t it?

It is understood that the majority of those who had to abort their training are foreigners.

The training programme for cabin crew lasts for less than three months while it takes over two years and costs about $250,000 to train one pilot.

Seeing as SIA Group already lost $1.12 billion in the first financial quarter, it doesn’t take a genius to know why they’re further cutting down costs.

Unfortunately for the eager beaver trainees, a spokesman for the airline said that they will not be able to keep the trainees once their training programme is completed due to the “current surplus in staff numbers”.

Fate Of The Retrenched

According to the spokesman, retained cadet pilots who need to complete the overseas segment of their training will be put on no-pay leave until SIA is able to safely resume this segment of the training programme.

As we all know, no-pay leave is a total bummer.

After completing their training programme, which includes overseas training, the cadet pilots will be released due to the current surplus in staff numbers.

The airline added that SIA will be open to hiring them should there be a demand for air travel.

Which has been said to be only possible in 2024.

For those who were part of the 2,400 that were retrenched last week, the airline will continue paying their salaries until Dec 15 2020. Those affected will also retain medical and other benefits until then.

In addition, each affected employee will be paid in lieu of the notice period in their employment contract. This can be up to three months’ salary.

Those who have been in service for two years or more will receive one month of pay for every year of service, capped at 25 months.

Scoot, part of the SIA Group, has also compensated their retrenched staff. This includes coverage for hospitalisation and surgical expenses until 31 March 2021.

Yesterday we reported that three companies offered over 1,000 jobs to the retrenched SIA staff.

It’s pretty nice to see people helping out each other and seeing as there could possibly be more retrenchment for SIA in the future, we hope to see more companies extending a helping hand to those affected.

Read Also: Experts Say SIA Might Retrench More People As 2021 Might Be Worse Than 2020