Singapore Airlines- Still A Great Way to Fly?

My take on why SIA is in such bad financial shape

Singapore Airlines--the carrier that Singapore prides itself in--is synonymous with service, value for money and of course, with the quintessential image of the Singapore Girl. A great way to fly. No longer, it seems.

As of the first half of its financial year 2009, it has suffered a loss of S$466 million; not exactly a dismal figure, compared to some other airlines. But it is rather unprecedented for a company that has achieved solid profits and received glowing accolades year after year. Surely, it must be a financial earthquake tantamount to what is felt by its biggest shareholder when it managed to chalk up huge losses in recent times.

Based on anecdotal evidence, service with a smile has turned into service with a frown. Something is not quite right with the SIA girl; or so it appears. It is easy to point the finger and say that the SIA girl turns up her nose at locals and cuddles up to foreigners of a different skin colour. While there may be some truth to this, I suspect the malaise runs deeper: could its management have turned arrogant and lost touch with the most important group of people, for which the company exists--its customers?

I have never taken a SIA flight for as long as I can remember; neither have I bought into its shares even though I know it pays good dividends. But I do know that many other carriers are giving it a run for its money, including budget carriers such as AirAsia, JetStarAsia and Tiger Airways (wait..don't they belong to the same people? Maybe not Tiger Airways). Granted, they are not the same; one is serving it up to the well-healed, the others are serving up cup noodles for $5 to hungry, willing-to-pay customers (you can't see the former CEO of NKF taking a Tiger flight, can you?). But my experience with AirAsia has been good, in fact, very good, so much so that I don't see a need to travel by SIA even if I strike ToTo for six million dollars tomorrow. (Ok...I concede that for long haul flights, maybe I might just consider taking a SIA flight, but only if it is price competitive).

I hope my view is not representative of the general masses, otherwise the management of SIA will have to take a hard look at the modus operandi of the company, if it is not already doing so. To a certain extent, the problems at SIA should be a malady acutely felt by the masters of the land, if it is not already feeling that. Have they lost touch with the base? Have they become too arrogant for their own good? Have they forgotten their CLIENTS to whom they should serve, rather than turn defensive at the slightest hint of perceived wrongdoing? They will do well to heed the advertisement tagline of an international household name involved in financial products. It reads something like this:

'We believe the best financial solutions start with listening'. If true to form, it beats a 'great way to fly' anytime.