Singapore Airlines is set to hire cabin crew from South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, as part of a drive to boost capacity in the face of increased demand, according to a report from The Strait Times.
The airline needs to urgently hire staff from overseas now that border restrictions in SIA’s key Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan have been eased.
According to the Strait Times, the only overseas source that SIA has been able to tap since 2020 was Malaysia, beginning in April 2022. Prior to the pandemic, it also took in applicants from Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. The airline said recruitment drives in these markets will resume progressively.
“SIA has traditionally recruited cabin crew from a wide range of locations to supplement our recruitment intake from Singapore,” the airline said, according to local media reports.
“Our recruitment drives are to replace cabin crew who have left for a variety of reasons, as well as to meet SIA’s growth plans. The number of available vacancies varies from time to time, and is dependent on our manpower requirements.”
The airline froze hiring during the pandemic and put many of its cabin crew on unpaid leave until February 2022, when it restarted its local recruitment drive.
It has since hired about 1,200 cabin crew members, and plans to take on another 800 new recruits soon.
In July 2022, the airline changed its policy on expectant cabin crew members. SIA now allows cabin crew to apply for temporary ground positions after becoming pregnant, and return to flying when they have given birth.
Previously, the airline placed cabin crew on unpaid leave upon declaring they were pregnant and then they were required to leave the company once the child’s birth certificate had been submitted.
On its cabin crew recruitment page, SIA specifies that on top of possessing a bachelor’s degree from a “recognized university”, applicants must also be willing to relocate to Singapore.