family
Much sense in your post.
I don't believe SIA are really serious about a low cost airline. They seem to be confused as to what a low cost airline is. It is supposed to be low cost to the customer. They seem to think it is about low cost to the airline.
It is more likely that this announcement is about distracting attention from the dispute with the pilots whilst increasing the press and public perseption that the problems SIA are experiencing at the moment are caused by "high costs" which they would have you believe = pilots salaries. Costs at SIA are well below those of most of their competition already. The only things that are high are greed, arrogance and blinkered short term accounting.
It would be interesting to see the response to pilot recruitment for this proposed airline. The advertisement would no doubt point out that any losses made by the fledgeling airline would be recovered from the staff's wages. At least investors could rest assured that if the profits were not high enough they could be topped up by reducing salaries till profit is greater than say 350 million! No lets make it 700 million. Hey, just pick any number you like! If your top management are incompetent you can dip into employees pockets to save some face.