TwoZeroCentre
26th Mar 2005, 10:51
Anybody got any thoughts on why SIA Cargo was set up as an independent company? In particular why are pilots employed directly into SIA Cargo and then seconded back to SIA? It doesn’t save money as cargo pay is more than the 777/345 and only slightly below the 744 after the new CA. The only real difference seems to be S$100 on housing and no SIN transport allowance. It’s generally assumed that SIA Cargo employed its own pilots to save money but saving less than S$200 per month per pilot cannot justify the expense of setting up and running a separate company. Duplicate pilot managers, operations staff, HR staff etc. - what is the point?
The competitor in HKG seems to have got it right. No subsidiary cargo company just mainline which employs all the cargo pilots on bases saving millions on housing allowance and a fair bit on salaries. There is also freedom of movement between fleets after serving 3 years on cargo aircraft. Not sure how many 400 pilots in SIA will want to move to cargo as the passenger fleet runs down without any further freedom of movement between fleets. The contracts are now so close it doesn’t make sense to have a separate cargo contract for pilots and all the expense that goes into maintaining it. Maybe a major rethink is not too far away!
The competitor in HKG seems to have got it right. No subsidiary cargo company just mainline which employs all the cargo pilots on bases saving millions on housing allowance and a fair bit on salaries. There is also freedom of movement between fleets after serving 3 years on cargo aircraft. Not sure how many 400 pilots in SIA will want to move to cargo as the passenger fleet runs down without any further freedom of movement between fleets. The contracts are now so close it doesn’t make sense to have a separate cargo contract for pilots and all the expense that goes into maintaining it. Maybe a major rethink is not too far away!