Nearly 40 employers offer 450 roles at job fair for retrenched Jetstar Asia staff
Labour chief Ng Chee Meng (in red top) posing for a wefie with a group of Jetstar Asia pilots on June 18. PHOTO: NG CHEE MENG/FACEBOOK
SINGAPORE – Nearly 40 employers from a mix of industries, from aviation and aerospace to public transport and hospitality, have come together in an effort to match retrenched Jetstar Asia employees with new jobs.
The job fair at Changi Airport Terminal 1 is open to all Jetstar Asia staff and will run from June 17 to June 19.
It features more than 450 roles, including pilots, cabin crew, customer service, engineering, and safety and quality assurance, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) said on June 18.
Jetstar Asia, a Singapore-based low-cost airline, will shut after more than 20 years in operation, it said on June 11.
The airline will continue to operate flights out of Singapore for seven weeks, with a progressively reduced schedule until its final day of operations on July 31.
Over 500 Singapore-based employees will be laid off when the airline closes.
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group said on June 13 that it would create positions for retrenched Jetstar Asia employees across its airlines, including 100 jobs for pilots and 200 jobs for cabin crew.
NTUC said SIA and its low-cost arm Scoot are 'primarily supporting' the recruitment efforts for pilots and cabin crew, and will be at the job fair on all three days.
A range of other employers – 38 companies in total will be at the job fair on different days – include plane-maker Airbus and its aircraft component and service subsidiary Satair, airport operator Changi Airport Group, inflight caterer and ground handler Sats, public transport operator SMRT and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
The job fair aims to provide direct support to Jetstar Asia employees, including career coaching, skills upgrading and employability assistance, and allow them to tap the labour movement's unions for support, said NTUC.
In a Facebook post on June 18, labour chief Ng Chee Meng said he had visited the job fair at Terminal 1 to speak to retrenched Jetstar Asia employees.
'They shared their concerns and uncertainties about what lies ahead and I completely understand the anxiety that they feel,' Mr Ng said. 'I want to assure them that they are not alone.'
Mr Jerome Tan, 37, who works in flight operations, visited the job fair on June 17. Those affected by the closure of Jetstar Asia are 'coping with it in their own perspective, speed and pace', he told The Straits Times.
Mr Tan, who has worked at Jetstar Asia for nine years, said he has applied for a job at SIA. 'I think the common approach would be to (go to) Scoot or SIA' because staff can still be based in Singapore.
He added that the job fair had booths where Jetstar Asia staff could scan a QR code to find out more about the roles on offer. While he did not see the closure coming, he said he is not taking it badly, preferring to see it as a business decision.
A cabin crew member who asked not to be named said she was 'shocked' when she heard about the airline's decision to stop operations. She was on annual leave at the time. The 24-year-old has worked at Jetstar Asia for nearly three years, and has applied for cabin crew positions at SIA and Scoot a few days after the closure.
Another member of the cabin crew, who also did not want to be named, said she plans to leave the aviation industry for hotel management. She was travelling in Taiwan when she heard about the airline's closure.
The job fair was organised by the NTUC Aerospace and Aviation cluster, NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute, the Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers' Union, CAAS and Jetstar Asia.
More than 100 employees attended on the first day, with a similar number expected on the remaining two days.
Vanessa Paige Chelvan is a correspondent at The Straits Times. She writes about all things transport and pens the occasional commentary .
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