Singapore – Retrenchment sentiments hang in the air as Singapore Airlines (SIA) announces its intention to outsource certain call centre functions in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada and, possibly, the UK.

According to SIA, the proposal is consistent with the airline’s objective “to improve productivity and efficiency by being more cost-effective in the provision of services to customers,” as well as allows it to “leverage the service provider’s expertise and economies of scale to achieve greater efficiency in reservations processes.” 

According to Australia’s The Age newspaper, the airline will sack 56 call centre staff in Sydney and Perth in July and a further 84 in Auckland, Los Angeles and Vancouver.

The paper quoted SIA as saying that the move to outsource its call centre function was not “unique in our industry”, highlighting United Airlines and British Airways’ decision to move call centre jobs to India.