
Jetstar Asia ceasing operations: More than 500 employees to be retrenched
Singapore-based budget airline Jetstar Asia will cease operations from Jul 31. Its parent company Qantas cites increasing costs and competition among the reasons for the exit. More than 500 employees, from corporate staff to cabin crew, will be let go. Most are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents. Analysts also expect air ticket prices to go up in the next few weeks, as affected passengers search for other options. Chen Chuanren, Regional Editor of Air Transport World at Aviation Week Network, discusses the announcement. He talks about factors that led to Jetstar Asia's closure and how other budget airlines can capitalise on the routes they will leave behind.
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CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Air India disaster deals heavy blow to 'world class airline' ambition
NEW DELHI: The Air India plane crash in which more than 200 passengers were killed on Thursday (Jun 12) has plunged the airline into its deepest crisis yet and will deal a heavy blow to its efforts to revamp its reputation and fleet. After taking the carrier over from the government in 2022, the Tata Group unveiled ambitious plans to reverse years of underinvestment in an ageing and outdated fleet and create a "world class airline", as CEO Campbell Wilson has repeatedly put it, on a par with rivals like Emirates. The turnaround has been aimed at tackling its myriad problems including persistent flight delays, disgruntled customers, a shortage of spare parts, delayed plane deliveries and years of financial losses. "Newer aircraft and better maintenance should be the hallmark for Air India to survive. Proper maintenance is what they should be looking into, because Air India has had a chequered past," said Vibhuti Deora, a former legal expert at India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. That past includes, while under government ownership, Boeing 737 flight from Dubai overshooting the runway at one domestic airport and crashing into a gorge in 2010, killing 158 people. More recently, its low-cost unit Air India Express saw one craft skid off a runway in India in 2020, killing 21 people. Only a few days ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told an international gathering of hundreds of airline executives in New Delhi that the country's aviation industry stood at a crucial point of takeoff. On Thursday, however, Air India swapped the bright red colour scheme and logo on its website for a more sombre black and grey one, covering it with a banner that carried the crashed flight's number: "AI-171". "For an airline, the most important thing is the brand's identity with safety. This will be a major setback for the brand in that aspect," said Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of public relations firm Perfect Relations. "DIFFICULT DAY" With its maharajah mascot, Air India was once renowned for its lavishly decorated planes and stellar service championed by its founder, JRD Tata, India's first commercial pilot. But since the mid-2000s, the carrier's reputation has worsened as financial troubles mounted. It has flown widebody planes with business class seats in poor condition and grounded some of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners for lack of spare parts. When Tata regained control, the airline was "just in absolute shambles", its CEO Wilson told Reuters in a 2024 interview, noting that some of its planes hadn't had a product refresh since they were delivered in 2010-2011. Air India, which has a 30 per cent share of the domestic passenger market, has a fleet of 198 planes, of which 27 are 10 to 15 years old and 43 are more than 15 years old, the civil aviation ministry told parliament in March. Air India Express had 101 planes, with 37 per cent of them more than 15 years old. The plane that crashed on Thursday was 11 years old, according to Flightradar24. Rival Indian airlines like IndiGo operate newer planes. Air India, which is part-owned by Singapore Airlines, has placed orders for 570 new jets in recent years and is in talks for dozens more. It has even aggressively expanded its international flight network in the face of the fury of its passengers, who often take to social media to show soiled seats, broken arm rests, non-operational entertainment systems and dirty cabin areas. It has also been ranked the worst airline for flight delays in Britain, where its departures were on average just under 46 minutes behind schedule in 2024, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data by the PA news agency published in May. It has also been reporting losses since at least fiscal 2019-20. In 2023-2024, it reported a net loss of US$520 million on sales of US$4.6 billion. Before it can make any further progress on these problems, however, it faces the difficult task of investigating one of India's worst aviation disasters ever. "This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India," CEO Wilson said in a video message.


CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
The Great Room CEO Jaelle Ang to exit company: Key business lessons from the 'pocket rocket' entrepreneur
In person, Jaelle Ang is a lot more petite than you'd expect. Dressed in a stylish navy blue ensemble belted at the waist, she strikes an unassuming figure – warm, friendly and feminine. Not quite the stereotypical picture of an industry-disrupting, power-hungry entrepreneur with a god complex. It's refreshing. Meeting for the first time at The Great Room's Centennial Tower workplace in the Marina Central district, we chatted for a bit and admitted to having stalked each others' Instagram profiles the day before. 'This is going to be a fun one,' I thought to myself, before Ang disappears into the sprawling 36,000 sq ft co-working space for the photo shoot with our team. Diminutive in stature as she may be, Ang is certainly no featherweight in the corporate arena. In 2019, the business heavyweight was named in Forbes Asia's 25 Power Businesswomen list, amongst a litany of accolades that celebrate her defiance of stereotypes and her success in breaking down barriers in the industry. And in the years since, she has taken the homegrown brand global with 13 locations across the Asia Pacific in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Sydney – culminating in a full acquisition by global real estate titan CBRE Group earlier this year. Following the acquisition, Ang has announced that she will exit the company in August. PREMIUM BEGINNINGS The Great Room's first location at One George Street in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District was a game-changer. It single-handedly transformed the notion of the co-working space from 'cheap and cheerful', as Ang puts it, to one that quickly became the aspirational blueprint for the modern workplace: flexible, hospitality-inspired, community-focused and beautifully designed to boost productivity and engagement. Back in 2016, it was a unique proposition that set a new standard in the industry. The Great Room upped the ante with plush yet functional interiors designed by hospitality experts such as Singapore-based Distillery Studio and Michael Fiebrich Design. The former, for example, was responsible for the interior aesthetic of the One George Street and Centennial Tower locations, and the latter, for the Ngee Ann City workspace. 'I love being the unreasonable rebel that challenged everything,' Ang declared, as we sat down for the interview in a private room offering a gorgeous view of Marina Bay and the waters beyond from the 18th floor of the skyscraper. 'We were the first one who said, 'People actually want it all: A great location, great design, great programming, great coffee',' she recalled. 'I love that people now demand and expect so much more from the workplace. It needs to be a container for culture, for community, for social engagement, for 'casual collisions', for wellness and, most importantly, for learning. It cannot be boring and sterile. No compromise on the furniture. They want different types of spaces that they can meander, pow-wow and contemplate in. This is now the norm for workplaces.' DESIGN OF A DECADE Design, said Ang, has always been her 'first and greatest love'. After graduating from the Bartlett School of Architecture at the University College London with a BSc in Architecture, she went on to pair her proclivity for place-making with an MBA from London's Imperial College. The Great Room, however, isn't her first real estate rodeo. Prior to its founding, the ex-Citibank and Credit Suisse banker skilled in corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions was the Head of Real Estate Development at publicly-listed Country Group Development in Thailand. In 2009, Ang moved to Bangkok where she ended up spearheading the development of one of the city's largest mixed-use properties – a 5.7 ha, billion-dollar waterfront project along the Chao Phraya River – comprising the Four Seasons Hotel, Four Seasons Residences and Capella Hotel over seven years. Now The Great Room was also not Ang's first entrepreneurial play. The Raffles Girls' School and Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School alum had started her first business at the age of 21 – an art school for children named Art Bug, which underwent two rounds of successful funding before she exited the business in 2012. Fast forward a decade, Ang's vision of marrying upscale design with premium hospitality not only transformed Singapore's co-working scene, it attracted the attention of international players like Industrious, which scooped up The Great Room business in 2022, setting the stage for its global expansion beyond Singapore. Then, global real estate giant CBRE Group came knocking. In January this year, the group completed its acquisition of US-based Industrious, adding to its network of more than 100 flexible workspaces worldwide, in a US$400 million (S$514.6 million) deal that placed the business at a US$800 million valuation. 'I'm a very hard worker; it comes from my competitive swimming back in school. So, I have a lot of endurance,' said Ang, who earned the nickname 'pocket rocket' amongst her peers growing up. "Small and powerful," she added, likening her personal strengths to that of The Great Room. 'We call ourselves a small giant because we feel like we punch above our weight in terms of how we push boundaries.' 'Better than chilli padi,' I mused, to which she nodded in agreement. THE ART OF THE EXIT 'We've gone through tumultuous times and quite a tricky journey over the last few years to arrive at this point,' Ang shared. 'It feels like a validation of an entrepreneur's hard work, starting from zero, to get to a point where there's an acknowledgement that you've created something valuable.' Her decision to exit the business comes six months after the acquisition. 'I wanted to leave when the company is at its peak; when there are no existential problems like a pandemic or debt, when we have strong cash flow and are at a point of positive opportunities like expansion,' she said. She also believes that different chapters in a company's growth call for different leadership: 'A leader must also have the humility to allow the leadership team to grow and renew.' On Aug 1, 2025, Ang will be handing over the reins to her successor, co-founder and current chief operating officer Su Anne Mi, who will take the company through its next stage of growth, which includes a ninth Singapore location at Shaw Tower coming onstream in 2026. GREATEST LESSONS LEARNT As the credits roll on her role as CEO, Ang reflects on the biggest business and life lessons that she's taken away from her entrepreneurial journey. 'Personal reputation can be your greatest asset or liability,' she offered. 'Trust is important – to be dependable for the tribe; whether it's your immediate leaders or external stakeholders, they need to know that you're going to take care of them, that you're going to hold up your end of the promise.' The second piece of advice she has for aspiring entrepreneurs? Focus. 'Multitasking is sometimes overrated. Do one thing, but take it seriously. Simplicity is also very underrated. Do one simple thing and do it well, then bet on it – go all in – and be known for it,' she urged. BUILDING A GREAT TEAM Next, build a 'talent-dense team'. It begins with hiring the right people, and then providing the right incentives to drive the right behaviour. 'This is the single most important rule in management,' she observed. 'Incentives are very underrated. People talk about mission and objectives, but you really need to link that with both incentive and culture.' Succeeding as a leader also means understanding 'the edge of one's competence'. 'Know what you're very good at and have confidence in your ability, but also have the humility to acknowledge what you're not good at and then let other people do it,' she advised. 'My greatest superpower is being able to attract people smarter than I am, and then galvanising them into action.' To this end, The Great Room's hiring protocol centres around recruiting what Ang likes to call "Snake Killers and Learning Animals". "It's a fun metaphor that refers to speed, agility and velocity; people who are very curious, are willing to be pushed out of their comfort zones, and want to learn new things very fast,' she explained. 'I believe that a great team has everything and nothing in common,' she added. 'A leader must provide simplicity and clarity in the mission – a common mission and values – as well as build a culture that is open to accommodate diversity. So, what's different is how to get there and the perspectives and skill sets.' THE RELUCTANT LEADER Describing herself as a 'reluctant leader' and 'natural introvert' who could not even give the welcome speech when the first two locations were opened, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that truly tested Ang's mettle in her first CEO role helming The Great Room. 'I started out being very self-conscious and wasn't sure if I had the right competence to lead the team. But the pivotal point came during COVID, which was the most difficult period. The business wasn't doing badly, but there were external stakeholders, and we were dealing with the uncertainty and unpredictability,' she revealed. Ang made two critical decisions that shifted her internal narrative at the time: The first was to concede to not having all the answers and the second, was deciding that she was, in fact, the best captain to steer the ship through the storm. 'Whatever inadequacy or [skills] gap there might be, instead of resisting and being reluctant, get good. Go figure it out. Because the team and the company is only going to be as good as the CEO,' she said. Indeed, she got so good that retirement may be imminent following the acquisition. While she's reticent to confirm nor deny the rumours, what's next for Ang and her self-professed Type A personality?


CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
US sees no immediate reason to ground Boeing 787 after Air India crash
WASHINGTON: US officials said on Thursday (Jun 12) they have not seen any immediate safety data that would require halting Boeing 787 flights after a fatal Air India accident killed over 240 people. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Acting Federal Aviation Administration head Chris Rocheleau made the comments at a news conference and said they had seen videos of the crash in India. Duffy said he had spoken to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy. An NTSB and FAA team, with support from Boeing and engine manufacturer GE Aerospace, was going to India, Duffy said. "They have to get on the ground and take a look. But again right now it'd be way too premature," Duffy said. "People are looking at videos and trying to assess what happened, which is never a strong, smart way to make decisions on what took place." Duffy said the FAA was reviewing information with Boeing and GE as part of the investigation into the crash. Duffy also emphasised the US government "will not hesitate to implement any safety recommendations that may arise. We will follow the facts and put safety first". Rocheleau said, "As we proceed down this road with the investigation itself, if there's any information that becomes available to us regarding any risk, we will mitigate those risks." Duffy said the FAA is "prepared to send additional resources to get the data we need to ensure the safety of the flying public".