Daily Briefing: SIA Group passenger carriage drops 98.6% in July; Over 140 employees from SPH to be affected by retrenchment exercise

And Zoom opens a new data center in Singapore.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s three carriers continue to see sharp declines in passenger traffic for July.

SIA Group said this was down to severely curtailed demand for air travel, with border controls and travel restrictions remaining in place due to COVID-19.

Group passenger carriage fell 98.6% YoY in July, whilst group passenger capacity declined 94.3% for the same period. The SIA Group's passenger load factor was at 21.6%, a decline of 64.2% YoY.

In terms of cargo load factor, all route regions recorded increases in the month of July.

Cargo load factor for the SIA Group was at 84.6% in July, up 26.5% as the capacity contraction of 60.9% YoY outpaced the 43.1% decline in cargo traffic.

In July, Singapore Airlines reported a $1.12b net loss in the first quarter after drastically cutting capacity due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This was compared to the $111m profit in the same period a year ago.

Read more here. 

From ChannelNewsAsia:

About 140 staff members from Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) media sales division and magazines will be affected by a retrenchment exercise, amidst a restructuring to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on advertising revenue, the company said.

The affected employees make up about 5% of the overall media group's headcount, SPH said in its media release, adding that retrenchment costs are expected to come up to about $8m.

In a corporate presentation on Tuesday, the firm said the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant adverse impact across all business segments, with the economic downturn impacting advertising revenue.

SPH has exited its magazine business in Malaysia and has ceased the publication of magazines Cleo, Young Parents and Shape.

Newsroom staff and journalists are not affected by the restructuring exercise, the presentation said.

Read more here. 

From Reuters:

Zoom Video Communications has opened a new data center in Singapore, its first in Southeast Asia, according to a report.

Use of Zoom’s video conferencing services has surged as huge numbers of people across the world work from home because of coronavirus curbs, but the company has also come under fire over privacy and security issues.

The Singapore data center, through which the company’s users in Southeast Asia can connect, brings its total to 18 sites globally.

The company also plans to hire more Singapore employees, including engineers and sales staff, said Abe Smith, Head of International at Zoom.

Security researchers this year discovered that Zoom rerouted some calls through its servers in China, even if those calls were placed outside China.

Read more here.