SIA asks pilots to volunteer for unpaid leave
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A Singapore Airlines (SIA) Boeing 777-312ER plane taking off in wet weather from Changi Airport. SIA has asked its captains to volunteer for unpaid leave amid a global economic slowdown that has dented long-haul travel demand, the airline said on Saturday. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore Airlines (SIA) has asked its captains to volunteer for unpaid leave amid a global economic slowdown that has dented long-haul travel demand, the airline said on Saturday.
The move came nearly a year after the company - considered a bellwether for the full-service airline industry - made a similar offer to its first officers.
The airline has also frozen its intake of cadet pilots as part of a slew of cost-cutting measures.
"Singapore Airlines began offering voluntary no-pay leave to first officers in March last year and subsequently to captains who expressed interest," company spokesman Nicholas Ionides said in a statement emailed to Agence France-Presse.
