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SINGAPORE — Airline workers such as cabin crew are anxious over their financial future as the aviation industry comes to a virtual standstill worldwide amid the Covid-19 outbreak, with many borders closed and nations in lockdown.

Many of these workers in Singapore are scrambling to supplement their lost income, as they are stood down, or working very few shifts. Singapore Airlines (SIA), for example, a major employer here, grounded almost all its aircraft earlier this week.

TODAY spoke to cabin crew and pilots from various airlines over recent days to find out how they are faring and how they plan to get through these tough times.

“How much I bring back a month solely depends on my flights. So with a lot of my flights being cancelled, it’s as good as me bringing back just my basic (salary) which isn’t sustainable,” said a 25-year-old SIA flight attendant, who declined to be named.

She has applied for unpaid leave because the chances of being called up for a flight during this period are “highly unlikely” — and is now considering helping her aunt who runs a food stall to wrap rice for S$10 per hour.

Another flight attendant, who works for a different airline but is based in Singapore, told TODAY that he has started a part time job at a retail store, where he works three times a week. He also declined to be named.

The 29-year-old started the job after noticing a 50 to 80 per cent loss from his usual monthly income of about S$3,500 a month. He added that in a normal month he would work an average of 16 days but worked only six so far in March.

On Monday (March 23), SIA announced that it would cut 96 per cent of its capacity originally scheduled up to the end of next month, and would ground 138 SIA and SilkAir planes out of its total fleet of 147.

As many as 10,000 of its staff could be affected by cost-cutting measures. SIA chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong said the Covid-19 crisis may be the “greatest challenge” that SIA Group has faced in its existence.

Other airlines around the world have responded to the pandemic in similar fashion. Dubai carrier Emirates said on Sunday that it would cut its destinations from its usual 159 to 13, and slash basic salaries for a majority of employees by between 25 and 50 per cent for three months.

A 50-year-old chief flight attendant, who has worked at SIA for 27 years, told TODAY: “Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003) was not as bad. Flights then were only cancelled to the China region, but not so much with the rest of the world. We were apprehensive then, but not as much as now.” She also declined to be named.

In normal times, she would work for about 20 days of each month, but now it is only about six to eight days a month.

Without her in-flight hours and layover allowances, which usually make up the bulk of her pay, she can barely pay her mortgage or keep paying for a caretaker to look after her ailing mother.

Her greatest worry now is of retrenchment — a mounting fear that she said is rippling through the ranks of her colleagues.

“Some of the girls are single mothers. They have to take care of their children. They have to take care of their parents,” she said, adding that she also provides for her three godchildren and their single mother.

“How will I find another job? Everyone is downsizing. My talents are basically tied to what I’ve been doing for the past 27 years,” she said, also declining to be named.

A Singapore-based flight attendant from a different airline said the last flight she worked on was on March 12, and her next confirmed flight is on April 13.

The woman, 28, said with her allowances also disappearing, her pay has slipped to a third of its usual level. Her basic pay is S$1,200 a month. She also worries about job security.

“There’s a fear of retrenchment, there’s a fear of compulsory no-pay-leave, there’s a fear that the company might just collapse. Right now, a lot of places have stopped hiring, so if I am retrenched what am I going to do?” she told TODAY.

Though her airline has a strict policy that bars its current flight attendants from working a second job, she has been wrestling with the idea of breaking the rules and moonlighting as a temperature screener during this period.

In the meantime, her loss of income has stalled her plans this year to move out of her family home and into a rented flat.

“I already paid the deposit, and I might have to terminate the rental and lose money before I can even move in. It’s quite sad,” she said.

An SIA pilot, who declined to be named, has been working for the airline for 30 years. He told TODAY that despite taking a 55 per cent pay cut and being made to take compulsory no-pay leave for seven days starting April 1, he still has savings and investments to rely on.

However, he is afraid of the health consequences that he might face.

The pilot, who is scheduled to helm a flight fairly soon, said: “I'm sure there'll be people infected onboard. I'm going to come home with two kids in the house. They are young and will survive, but I've also got my parents who are 80 years old. I cannot sit down with them. Then where do I go? I go to a hotel room in my own country.”

“Why should I spend S$2,000 (on the hotel) and when I walk in and out people think I'm there for a good time?”

TODAY reached out to the Air Line Pilots Association Singapore (Alpa-S) which said its staff have been working very closely with SIA and the Ministry of Manpower to explore different initiatives to “assist and lend support to our pilots”.

“The deal that has been negotiated has been principled upon preventing job losses for all and includes pilots taking a total of 50 per cent (First Officers) and 55 per cent (Captains) reduction in pay in basic and variable monthly salary,” said Captain Kenneth Lai, Alpa-S president.

“Pilots over the age of 62 will take up to six months of compulsory no pay leave.”

Captain Lai also added that the Pilot Advisory Group, a group of Alpa-S volunteers who offer pilots assistance on any personal, domestic, medical or professional matter, is “ready to lend the necessary support to distressed pilots”. This avenue, available to SIA and SilkAir pilots, and not restricted to members of Alpa-S, has always been available to pilots and has assisted many to date, he said.

TODAY also reached out to the Singapore Airlines Staff Union which represents cabin crew. It declined to comment at this time.