SINGAPORE - After 26 years of having
only women cabin crew, SilkAir has decided to let the men in as well.
The first batch of air stewards will
be recruited this month month, start their training in May and begin flying in
August.
The major shift is necessary because
it has become "increasingly difficult" to attract "the right
(women) candidates with the qualities that we uphold", SilkAir said in a
recent e-mail to staff.
Amid an overall manpower crunch, the
airline told staff that it also has to compete for stewardesses with other
local and foreign carriers, such as parent Singapore Airlines, budget carriers
Tigerair and Jetstar Asia, as well as Middle Eastern airlines Emirates and
Qatar Airways.
At the same time, there is a need to
hire even more cabin crew to support future expansion.
From over 500 air stewardesses now,
the target is to grow the cabin crew pool to more than 700 within the next two
years, a spokesman told The Sunday Times.
To cushion against the impact of a
slowdown in the long-haul premium air travel market, the SIA group is boosting
its regional services - through SilkAir in the full-service sector and Tigerair
in the budget space.
In February last year, SilkAir
welcomed the first of its 54 new Boeing jets, its biggest ever order.
SilkAir's decision to hire air
stewards is a "positive and long-awaited" move, said Associate
Professor Seshan Ramaswami, who teaches marketing at the Singapore Management
University.
"Even for Singapore Airlines,
where the Singapore Girl is a longstanding branding icon signifying very high
levels of service, there are stewards and stewardesses on board the flight, and
passengers expect very high levels of service from the entire flight
crew".
SilkAir's new hiring policy
"reflects a moving away from a stereotype that only women are suitable for
these flight crew duties on board", he added. At the end of the day, what
is critical is the training, he pointed out.
The men, whose uniforms are now
being designed, will be subject to the same recruitment terms and 14-week
training period as the women, who don one-piece lime green or rustic red wrap
dresses, the airline's spokesman said.
On why SilkAir never hired air
stewards before this, she said: "Our earlier strategy was to hire women
crew who embodied nurturing characteristics in line with the SilkAir experience
we aimed to provide customers."
Mr Tony Sim, who heads the Singapore
Airlines Staff Union that represents SIA as well as SilkAir cabin crew, does
not expect any adjustment issues for existing SilkAir air stewardesses.
"On SIA flights, we have men
and women who work well alongside each other, so we are confident we will see
the same camaraderie on SilkAir flights" he said.
Article taken from The Straits Times
