Singapore Airlines Pilots Agree to Deeper Pay Cuts to Save Jobs

(Bloomberg) — Singapore Airlines Ltd. pilots have agreed to further pay cuts to remain in employment, the carrier said Saturday.

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Instrument panels and screens are seen inside an Airbus SE A350 XWB full-flight simulator at the Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC), a joint venture owned by Airbus and Singapore Airlines Ltd., during a media tour at the Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore, on Tuesday, June 20, 2017. Airbus announced on the eve of the Paris Air Show formalized plans to upgrade its A380 superjumbo with fuel-saving winglets as the European planemaker seeks to revive sales of the flagship model.

The city-state’s flag carrier and the Air Line Pilots Association – Singapore reached the agreement Friday and the company will implement the measures for all remaining pilots in Singapore Airlines and SilkAir with effect from Oct. 1. The deal will help to mitigate further job losses for pilots, it said.

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Under the agreement, salaries for re-employed captains and first officers will be cut by 60% and 50% respectively, the Straits Times reported, citing an internal circular. This includes a 10% reduction to the monthly variable component of their pay, the newspaper said.

Currently employed captains will have pay reduced by as much as 28.5%, while first officers’ salaries will be cut by up to 18.5%, the newspaper said. The agreement holds until March 31, 2022, according to the Straits Times.

The troubled carrier announced earlier this month that it will eliminate 20% of its workforce — or about 4,300 jobs — across its business and the SilkAir and Scoot units as it struggles amid a standstill in international air travel. The company put staff on unpaid leave, and pilots and cabin crew who are not flying no longer receive flight allowances, according to a Straits Times report in August.

Read: Singapore Air Goes Through Half of Cash Raised in Two Months

Unlike many of its peers, Singapore Airlines initially managed to resist job cuts, though some staff were redeployed to work in hospitals, social services and on Singapore’s transport network.

The airline operated at about 8% of passenger capacity in August. It carried around 40,000 passengers last month, compared with 3.3 million a year earlier.

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