SIA slashes cargo capacity

STRUGGLING Singapore Airlines Cargo will reduce capacity on its 13 747-400Fs by at least 20 per cent in response to the slow market.

The reductions were implemented recently and will continue into the northern hemisphere summer operating season, which starts late next month.

“With no improvement expected in the first half of this calendar year, and with stubbornly high fuel prices pushing up costs, we have taken appropriate action to reduce our freighter operations to better match capacity to demand,” SIA cargo president Tan Kai Ping states.

Operational resources have been scaled back but SIA has not made any employees redundant.

Earlier in February Singapore Airlines posted a 53 per cent fall in its third quarter net profit and expects a continued decline amidst sluggish demand and rising fuel costs.