SIA, Scoot crew return to the skies as tentative recovery from Covid-19 continues

Nine in 10 Singapore Airlines Group pilots and eight in 10 cabin crew are back in the skies, flying at least once a month. This is a far cry from the hours they were clocking before Covid-19 brought the aviation sector to its knees, but the fact that many are back in their uniforms offers some hope things are slowly but surely recovering. Analysts, however, stressed that the immediate future will remain gloomy. About 2,200 pilots - about 90% of the total number - are now flying at least once a month. This comprises pilots from SIA and the group's budget arm Scoot. About 6,500 cabin crew, or eight in 10, are also doing at least one flight a month. The SIA Group disclosed the figures to The Straits Times, but did not say what the lowest point was, in terms of active flight crew, citing commercial sensitivities. In SIA Group's previous update on crew numbers last August, it said then it had more than 3,200 pilots and almost 11,000 cabin crew. Meanwhile, Jetstar Asia, Singapore's other local airline, said about 50% of its pilots and cabin crew are back at work. The budget carrier had grounded its entire fleet of 18 Airbus 320s at its lowest point of the pandemic in March last year. A spokesman for the SIA Group said: "In general, the average number of flying hours for our pilots and cabin crew has been increasing in tandem with the calibrated growth in the SIA Group's passenger capacity." He added that the frequency of flights for the crew vary from month to month. The crew members' return to work comes as SIA and Scoot continue to make gradual steps towards recovery. For example, SIA has resumed its Tokyo-Los Angeles service and started a new Copenhagen-Rome service.<br/>