Mak Swee Wah to retire as Singapore Airlines COO; CFO Tan Kai Ping to take over

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) on Monday (Jun 12) announced the retirement of its chief operations officer (COO) Mak Swee Wah. The 62-year-old former SilkAir chairman and chair of the company’s Covid-linked “restart task force” will move on from Sep 9, after 40 years with the group.

In a statement, SIA chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong said Mak’s retirement is “well deserved” after delivering long and distinguished service, adding that he has personally benefited much from Mak’s “valuable counsel” over the years.

Tan Kai Ping, 50, now the chief financial officer (CFO), will step into the COO role, and hand over his CFO scope to JoAnn Tan, the senior vice-president of marketing planning.

Tan Kai Ping, in his new role, will inherit Mak’s former title as executive vice-president of operations, and be responsible for SIA’s cabin crew, customer service and operations, engineering and flight operations divisions.

SIA said his credentials include spearheading the group’s successful fundraising efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, and leading a multi-year initiative to strengthen its financial resilience, optimise working capital, and build the capacity and capability of its finance division to meet the business’ future needs.

In particular, the airline noted that he managed the restructuring of the group’s aircraft order book during that time, deferring capital expenditure and realigning the delivery stream in tandem with future capacity and fleet requirements.

He was extensively involved in the proposed merger between Air India and Vistara, which is a key plank of SIA’s multi-hub strategy, it added.

Incoming CFO JoAnn Tan, 46, led the company’s efforts to restore SIA’s network connectivity and capacity after borders reopened, SIA said.

This was critical in helping the group to capture the significant pent-up demand for air travel, and deliver its record passenger revenue in its 2022-2023 financial year ended Mar 31, it noted.

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She also helped drive synergies between SIA and Scoot, with respect to network coverage, cross-sales and customer loyalty, it added.

Her position will be filled by divisional vice-president of digital Dai Hao Yu, who will be promoted to acting senior vice-president, marketing planning. Dai joined the group in 1998.

In his present role, he leads the group’s digital transformation, enabling its nimble and adaptive response to the dynamic operating environment, especially during the pandemic.