SINGAPORE – More than 900 seats that were available for Singapore Airlines’ (SIA’s) Restaurant A380 @ Changi dining experience were sold out within 30 minutes after bookings opened on Monday (Oct 12).
Customers who were unable to make a reservation after 12.30am were invited to join a wait list, which has since also been closed.
Confirming that all places were snapped up, an SIA spokesman told The Straits Times: “Given the strong demand and interest from customers, Singapore Airlines will reopen the wait list on KrisShop.com for a limited time from 6pm on Oct 12 for customers who are still interested in experiencing Restaurant A380 @ Changi.”
Those on the wait list will be contacted if there is additional availability.
Mr Lee Lik Hsin, SIA executive vice-president (commercial), said: “We are grateful for the extremely strong support from our customers, and we look forward to welcoming them to Restaurant A380 @ Changi.”
Among those who managed to purchase a lunch ticket was Ms Amy Tay.
It may have been filmed as a joke, but a recent viral video of an alleged bully telling his victim to laugh certainly did not amuse netizens.
There was “no malice intended” in the case of a boy who was filmed taunting and beating up a fellow student in a toilet, Hwa Chong International School (HCIS) clarified in a statement this morning (Oct 12), adding that the clip in question is over a year old.
The 50-second video had set tongues wagging after it surfaced on Facebook page Heartlanders on Friday (Oct 9).
In the clip, which was captioned “si ginna (naughty child) bully classmate”, one student was shown pushing another boy towards a mirror in a toilet.
Holding the boy by the shoulders, he then told him to “laugh at yourself” and “laugh like hell”.
The boy complied, but the alleged bully proceeded to punch his back. As the victim struggled, the other boy grabbed his neck and kicked him.
The video appears to have been removed from Heartlanders. However, screengrabs of the video have continued to circulate online.
Dogs are known for their love for the outdoors, and many owners often drive them around the island with their cars.
But owning a car in Singapore is not cheap, so some pay a premium for pet-friendly transport services such as GrabPet or private taxis to ferry their fur kids.
One driver sparked debate online on Sunday (Oct 11) after she was spotted taking her dog out on an unusual ride — a BlueSG car.
In a video shared on Facebook, the woman and her male passenger were seen parking the electric car at a BlueSG station and exiting with a pet dog in tow.
While the vehicle is part of a local car-sharing service, other users may not share their love of dogs.
This was seen in a caption that accompanied the clip: “Bringing their smelly and dirty dog in and dirtying shared car. Irresponsible!”
SINGAPORE: More than 650 companies in the retail sector have offered close to 3,600 opportunities from April to end-September under the SG United Jobs and Skills programme, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in its latest jobs situation report on Monday (Oct 12).
These include jobs, company-hosted traineeships and attachments, as well as training opportunities.
About 70 per cent of the opportunities offered were for jobs, said MOM, adding that 40 per cent of the job roles were professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) roles such as sales, marketing and business development managers, retail and wholesale trade managers and commercial and marketing sales executives.
The remaining 60 per cent of jobs were non-PMET roles, such as shop and store salespeople.
“These are necessary to meet immediate manpower needs for front-of-house operations as retail stores resumed post-circuit breaker,” said MOM.
Many retail shops were shut during the circuit breaker as part of measures implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“Major roles” in the retail sector can command salaries ranging from S$1,400 at the lower end of the salary range for non-PMET roles, to S$6,500 at the higher end of the salary range for PMET roles, said the manpower ministry.
(Chart: Ministry of Manpower)
These figures were released as part of a series of updates on the labour market.
Between April and September, 770 people were placed into jobs, enhanced roles, company-hosted traineeships and attachments, as well training opportunities in the retail sector, with 700 finding jobs or retaining their jobs in new or enhanced roles within retail.
A total of 70 job seekers have enrolled in company-hosted traineeships and attachments since Jun 1.
In September, Workforce Singapore (WSG) reached out to about 13,600 job seekers through walk-in interviews, career workshops and seminars, as well as SGUnited Jobs and Skills information kiosks and the SGUnited Jobs and Skills series.
“To increase the number of successful matches to opportunities in the retail sector, employers and job seekers can tap on various government initiatives to close skills gaps,” said MOM.
These initiatives include the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), P-Max Programme and Career Trial and the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.
For example, given the increase in demand for digital professionals in the sector, employers hiring mid-career individuals can participate in the six-month-long PCP for digital professionals. Jobseekers less familiar with customer-facing roles can also participate in the PCP for retail professionals.
As of end-August, more than 550 existing workers across 37 retailers have been, or are being, trained and redeployed into new or higher-value job roles through the WSG’s Job Redesign Reskilling Programme.
This programme was rolled out in October 2019, and supports “retailers’ redesign and business transformation efforts”, said MOM, adding that it was enhanced in February this year to “address the changing market conditions due to COVID-19”.
“This initiative has helped to moderate retrenchments while helping retailers retain experienced staff,” said the ministry.
Of these 550 workers, 40 per cent of them will receive a committed wage increment from employers after completing the training, and employers have committed to reviewing the wages for the remaining 60 per cent after the COVID-19 situation has stabilised.
Nearly one in three people employed in retail is aged 55 and above, making it “one of the top sectors employing senior workers”, said MOM.
“To promote age-friendly HR practices, funding support of uap to S$375,000 is available to each employer through the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grnt and Part-time Re-employment Grant,” added the ministry.
Image: Ministry of Manpower
The grants were introduced as part of the S$1.3 billion Senior Worker Support Package. Applications for the grants opened on Jul 1.
In the first three months of applications, close to 650 firms and 440 companies applied for the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant and the Part-time Re-employment Grant respectively.
Almost all were small- or medium-sized enterprises, including those in the retail sector, said MOM. These companies employ about 37,000 employees.
Meanwhile, the tripartite partners have updated the Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-employment of Older Employees, which was first released in 2011.
The new guidelines include guidance for employers on re-employing senior workers on a part-time basis, encouraging employers to raise their internal retirement and re-employment ages above statutory requirements, as well as adopting a “forward-looking approach” to guide employees on their career development.
“Employers are encouraged to embark on job redesign to effect organisation-wide and system-levels changes and build more age-friendly workplaces, so as to increase the number of older workers who can perform their jobs effectively,” said MOM.
The guidelines will also advise employers on how they can restructure medical benefits to be more sustainable.
Some dwellers of HDB apartments have had their fair share of issues with neighbours upstairs over dripping-wet clothes being hung out to dry — but the meat of this issue is a whole different thing altogether.
A man took to the Complaint Singapore Facebook page on yesterday (Oct 11) to post a rather strange sight outside his kitchen window: the household on a floor above him had hung out seven cuts of pork belly from their window ledge.
It’s even stranger to see that the thick slabs of meat were hung alongside clothes drying on bamboo poles.
“My neighbours and I are speechless,” wrote the man. “Are they selling homemade bacon?” he questioned, calling the pork lovers “ridiculous, selfish and [unhygienic]” people.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has completed its latest review of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates following the end of the Circuit Breaker.
Based on LTA’s monitoring of traffic conditions in September 2020, traffic speeds have remained optimal on all arterial roads and most expressways, except for some time periods on the Central Expressway (CTE).
As more people travel to and from their workplaces, traffic volume has continued to build up during weekday peak hours. This has led to localised congestion at specific locations along the CTE during peak periods.
To manage this, ERP rates will be adjusted by $1 with effect from 12 October 2020 at specific gantries on the CTE during the following time periods:
Southbound CTE after Braddell Road & PIE Slip Road into Southbound CTE – Set of 4 gantries
From 8.30am to 9.30am: From $0 to $1
Northbound CTE after PIE – Set of 2 gantries
From 6.00pm to 6.30pm: From $2 to $3
Still no ERP on other roads
Apart from these stretches, there will not be any ERP charges on other roads.
Security cameras in Singapore homes have been hacked, with the footage stolen and shared online.
Clips from the hacked footage have been uploaded on pornographic sites recently, with several explicitly tagged as being from Singapore.
The videos, which can last from under a minute to more than 20 minutes, feature couples, breastfeeding mothers and even children.
Most of them are in various states of undress or compromising positions.
Many faces can be clearly seen in locations such as the living room and bedrooms. Some are seen using the toilet with the door ajar.
In one video, time-stamped March 2020, a teenage girl can be seen in a white T-shirt and panties with school books around her. One of them is an O-level Ten-Year Series book used by students preparing for the exam.
In many videos tagged as being from Singapore, the homes have layouts typical of a Housing Board flat.
The footage appears to be from Internet Protocol (IP) cameras that are common in homes here. They are installed for security purposes or to remotely monitor children, the elderly, domestic workers and pets.
Flats at Natura Loft in Bishan continue to fetch a handsome price, with the recent sale of a five-room unit there again crossing the $1 million mark.
According to data from the Housing Board, the flat, with just under 90 years of its lease left, was sold for $1,208,000 this month.
It is believed to be the highest resale price for a Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) unit, Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News reported yesterday.
The 120 sq m unit is believed to be between the 28th and 30th storeys.
The previous record price for a DBSS unit was the $1,205,000 paid for a five-room flat on the 39th-storey at City View in Boon Keng.
In August this year, a similar-sized unit at Natura Loft, also on a high floor, sold for about $1.08 million.
In 2017, a unit there made headlines after it fetched a record price of $1.18 million.
DBSS flats are Housing Board flats designed, built and sold by private developers.
Experts who spoke to The New Paper said the new record is not a surprise, given that the housing market has been on the rebound after the circuit breaker.
SINGAPORE: With overseas travel off limits for a while to come, CNA journalists Matthew Mohan and Gaya Chandramohan have set off on a marathon walk around Singapore to see how appealing their home really is. They will look at some familiar sights and plenty of unfamiliar ones as they search for new experiences on their doorstep.
They aim to cover about 110km in a round-the-island walk over five days. Follow their journey here:
SINGAPORE: After getting battered this year by COVID-19 travel restrictions, experts say the commercial aviation sector could look very different as it tries to build a post-pandemic future.
“The global airline industry is facing an unprecedented crisis and airlines are in survival mode. Many airlines will not have the financial means to survive an indefinite shutdown that, for many, already exceeds a half-year,” International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Asia Pacific corporate communications assistant director Albert Tjoeng told CNA.
“The airline industry is facing an US$84 billion (S$114 billion) net loss this year and we are not expecting travel demand globally to recover to 2019 levels until 2024.”
National carrier Singapore Airlines reported a record S$1.1 billion loss for the quarter ending Jun 30 while Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung noted in Parliament that Changi Airport is serving just 1.5 per cent of its usual passenger volume.
Describing the revival of the Changi air hub as a “top national priority” for his ministry, Mr Ong spelled out a few ways in which air travel could safely resume.
These include the establishment of travel bubbles with countries and regimes deemed safe, as well as a “rigorous testing regime” in place of a two-week isolation period for travellers.
“Imposing quarantine on arriving passengers has the same impact as closing the border,” said Mr Tjoeng.
IATA has called for universal, systematic testing for all travellers before departure as a way to reverse the fortunes of the ailing aviation sector.
“Health screening before travel is essential. As testing technologies advance in speed, accuracy and scalability, we could see it playing an important role in future travel,” said Mr Tjoeng.
However, Singapore Management University transport analyst Terence Fan cautioned that such testing is not foolproof, noting that those in the early stages of the infection might show false negatives when tested.
Testing should be coupled with other measures such as contact tracing, said Mr Tjoeng, while Associate Professor Fan suggested requiring tourists stick to a strict itinerary when travelling to another country, as with package tours.
Even once the coronavirus situation settles, the new normal for air travel could still mean having your temperature taken and having to wear a mask while onboard flights, said Professor Jochen Wirtz, vice dean of graduate studies at the National University of Singapore Business School.
He expects travellers will adjust to such demands, just as they got used to the additional security measures that were imposed after the Sep 11 terror attacks 19 years ago, such as having to remove shoes.
“I don’t think this will be a deal breaker for travel, it will then slowly come back to normal just like after 9/11,” he said.
Associate Professor Fan however noted that while there was a dip in air travel after Sep 11, the impact of COVID-19 on aviation has been much worse.
Major economies such as the United States and Britain are still grappling with the disease, and this will impact the number of travellers into Singapore from such locations, he said.
“I think that’s a major problem. Yes, we’re going to have a new normal, but this new normal isn’t as smooth,” he said, adding this is likely to continue until an effective vaccine is developed and mass produced.
Pointing to IATA’s prediction of a full recovery only in 2024, Assoc Prof Fan said there was a “highly variable trajectory” for airlines to recover.
“I think people are just guessing and moving goalposts, but based on how China recovers, the goalposts can move both ways,” he said, referring to a pickup in the sector should Singapore see an influx of Chinese tourists in the future.
Airlines will have to restructure in the wake of COVID-19’s impact on revenue, said Assoc Prof Fan, with mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy proceedings likely possibilities for carriers unable to stay afloat during the pandemic.
He pointed to how a number of major US airlines did so following the decrease in demand after Sep 11, and noted the current crisis was much worse.
Governments however may be unwilling to consider selling off national carriers to third parties, said Assoc Prof Fan.
“I think a lot of airlines definitely have to have a restructuring in terms of debt or maybe bankruptcy proceeding,” he added.
“But in terms of the merger and acquisition options, it depends on the respective government. And it’s not clear they are, at this point, open to that.
No airline will come out of the current situation unscathed, said Mr Shukor Yusof, head of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.
“Airlines that are best capitalised, well managed and with a clear strategy beyond 2025 will benefit most,” he added.
Passengers arrive at Singapore Changi Airport on Jun 8, 2020. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
Scheduled to be operational sometime in the 2030s, Terminal 5 – which would have been part of the sprawling 1,080ha Changi East development – was expected to allow the airport to handle an additional 50 million passengers per year.
Plans for Terminal 5 should proceed despite the current downturn, said Mr Shukor.
He expects air passenger traffic at Changi to increase beyond 100 million passengers per year beyond 2030, up from the 85 million passengers per year it is currently able to handle.
“However, costs must come down and the size of the project reevaluated to be more in line with growth expectations,” said Mr Shukor.
Assoc Prof Fan noted there was a need to increase Changi Airport’s passenger capacity should there be a rush of travellers from countries such as China, which has largely brought the outbreak under control after it began in Wuhan late last year.
Chinese tourists are the largest market for travel into Singapore, making up about 20 per cent of all visitors to the country prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
He cautioned however that there should be some flexibility with regards to the terminal’s development.
“When you invest in big infrastructure (projects), you need to be flexible, because there’re so many uncertainties, so many things that could happen that you just don’t know,” said Associate Professor Fan.
SIA’s war chest of funds means Singapore could be well-placed to maintain its air hub status, said independent aviation analyst Brandon Sobie.
He anticipates other regional hubs may see a decline in stature as the airlines based there may downsize or even go under.
The recovery of Singapore’s air hub may even be sooner than expected, said Mr Shukor.
“Singapore has shown it is quick to adapt and nimble and this will help in a quick recovery, once the health crisis is completely under control. It would well be before 2024, depending on how 2021 manifests itself,” he said.
“For 2020, it’s a washout year.”
The CNA Leadership Summit 2020: Navigating the Post-Pandemic World will discuss through a series of TV programmes and webinars how businesses and organisations have reacted to the pandemic and applied innovative practices.
