Going digital
Another key initiative that Mr Goh has been leading is the company’s digital transformation.
“We are an early adopter of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), with more than 240 use cases and 28 initiatives to enhance revenue generation, customer experience, operational efficiency and employee productivity.”
SIA first identified the potential of GenAI in August 2022, and started implementing it in February 2023.
GenAI now powers search functions on SIA’s website to increase the relevance and efficiency of results, with a flight recommender providing personalised travel suggestions based on travel plans or user preferences.
Meanwhile, an internal GenAI-enabled intelligent assistant – dubbed Jarvis – helps more than 4,300 unique SIA employee users weekly, from a base of 5,600 ground staff.
“Our longstanding investments in GenAI, as well as our other digital capabilities, can give us an edge in this competitive landscape,” Mr Goh said.
Plane delays
SIA does face other challenges beyond capacity and costs. These include supply chain crunches and delays in fleet upgrades due to production issues at Boeing.
The inability of the US plane maker to deliver its next-generation B777-9 on schedule has set back SIA’s plans to replace its ageing fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A380 planes by at least five years.
The knock-on effect of the pushback in delivery dates for the 31 planes has been delays in product upgrades, such as a new suite of long-haul cabin offerings.
This has led to criticism from analysts and observers that SIA is falling behind its competitors, especially the Middle Eastern carriers.
SIA’s current suite of first- and business-class offerings was introduced in 2013, and slightly upgraded in 2018.
It recently took delivery of its last new Airbus A350 plane with these older business-class seats.
While the company recently unveiled plans to spend some $1.1 billion on the roll-out of the next-generation premium products, this will not start any time before mid-2026.
They will be installed in 41 A350-900 long-haul and ultra-long-haul planes, and subsequently in the B777-9 planes as they start to arrive.
Mr Goh said SIA is still in discussions with Boeing on delivery dates.
“While the product launch associated with the 777-9 has been delayed multiple times, we have been proactively ensuring that this product stacks up against other new products in the market or coming to the market,” he said. “We have been tweaking and enhancing the products, so we’ve not been standing still. This will be industry-leading when we introduce it in 2026.”
He added that despite the delivery delays, SIA still had one of the youngest fleets in the world, averaging just over seven years and five months, versus a global average of more than 15 years.
In a move that surprised the market, SIA Group in 2023 looked beyond market leaders Airbus and Boeing with its order of nine Brazilian-made Embraer E190-E2 aircraft for Scoot.
Four of these 112-seater planes have been delivered, enabling Scoot to fly to short-haul regional destinations such as Koh Samui, Padang, Phu Quoc and Melaka, which are too small for larger jet aircraft.
Mr Goh said SIA has also taken proactive steps to mitigate the impact of supply chain disruption on capacity growth, including extending the use of existing aircraft, as well as active engagement with original engine manufacturers to mitigate the shortage of aircraft spare parts.
Meanwhile, SIA’s premium lounge upgrades in Singapore and around the world continue. It has opened a new SilverKris Lounge in Perth and revamped lounges in London Heathrow and Sydney.
This follows the all-new SilverKris lounges at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3. Plans are under way to upgrade other lounges in SIA’s network.