http://www.haeco.com/investor_relati...glish_2012.pdf
Haeco's staff costs were HK$2.2 bil for 14,000 employees - works out to US$23,000 per year. Of the 14,000 employees about 6,000 are in Hong Kong. Their staff expenses were up 7% in 2013, and overall expenses up 14%
http://www.siaec.com.sg/investor_rel...eport_2012.pdf
SIAEC's staff costs in 2013 were S$79,000, or US$63,000 per annum
http://www.singaporeair.com/pdf/Inve...report1213.pdf
SIA - the airline (not the group) had staff costs of S$1.6 bil for 14,000 employees or S$114,000 per employee/US$91,000
Qantas has horrific segmentation of financial statements. We only know the Group has 33,000 staff, and the wages bill for 2013 was A$3.8 bil - works out to around US$100,000 per employee. If the AUD falls a few more percent, SIA will end up having higher staff costs than QF.
However - wages costs are not the entire story. Things like tax incentives, government handouts, training, availability of supply chain etc helps. The Singapore government gives MROs subsidised land, tax breaks, works with polytechnics to ensure a steady supply of trained technicians, works with universities to ensure that they produce a minimum number of aerospace engineers per year. Concerted government action in Singapore and Hong Kong ensures that the entire supply chain and labour force required for MROs are in place.
If any SIA or CX plane has trouble in their home base, all the parts and repair facilities are just round the corner. SIA or CX own stakes in most of those facilities and can ensure that they're always at the front of the queue when there's any maintenance problem. (Are HAECO and SIAEC really inferior to other MROs in the world though? I'm not privy to inside information, so I can't pass that judgement. Why are SIA and CX and MH planes not breaking down and getting into huge maintenance defect problems?)
And anyway it appears Qantas has a huge amount of staff compared to revenue. SIA Group had 22,000 staff generating S$15 bil (A$13.4 bil). That's A$609,000 per employee. Qantas group had 33,000 staff generating A$15.9 bil - A$480,000 per employee - so each Qantas employee generates 30% less revenue for Qantas than SIA.