SIA's high retention of pilots and staff will expedite its take-off

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) isn't hiring pilots, unlike some of its peers, even as the flag carrier is adding back capacity in anticipation of an increase in air travel demand.

The reason is simply that it probably already has all the pilots it needs.

Even after implementing a slew of measures in 2020 to reduce personnel costs - including early retirement, retrenchment and voluntary release - the mainboard-listed airline group is still operating on about 80 per cent of its staff strength vis-a-vis pre-pandemic levels.