SINGAPORE – In early September, as Hong Kong hunkered down ahead of the most powerful storm to hit the territory in five years, a team from Singapore Airlines (SIA) based more than 2,500km away at Changi Airport Terminal 2 (T2) was busy making preparations.

It was clear that Typhoon Saola – with average wind speeds of more than 200kmh near its centre – would disrupt SIA’s flights and scupper the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.

The national carrier had hoped to give travellers early notice of flight cancellations or changes. But realistically, the storm was a moving target and decisions could be made only about 24 hours before it made landfall on Sept 1, said SIA’s head of operations, Captain Gopala Subramaniam.

Recounting how the airline brought forward four flights to ensure that people could get in and out of Hong Kong before the storm hit, he said: “We looked at different prediction models and tried to figure out how best to mount flights safely while minimising inconvenience.”

Four other SIA flights later in the day had to be cancelled, and two flights the next day were rescheduled.

Capt Gopala said: “Could we have squeezed another flight in to improve the customer experience? At least we’re keeping them safe. That’s how I console myself.”

With the skies now busier post-Covid-19 pandemic, what keeps the 51-year-old up at night is how SIA handles potential disruptions like these, and how it can do better.

“The biggest challenge is to make sure you make the right call for the passengers,” the pilot-turned-airline executive told The Straits Times.

Reporting to Capt Gopala, SIA’s “day-of-operations” team comprises nearly 40 people who are responsible for tracking everything that happens within 72 hours of a flight.

He said: “It could be weather information, airport strikes or airspace closures... We quickly try to see how to re-route our flights to minimise any impact on our operations.”

During flight disruptions, SIA’s operations control centre, which works 24/7 from T2, coordinates the airline’s different units, including its more than 50 overseas stations.

Operations control manager Victor Chye, 61, described it as the carrier’s nerve centre.

Many factors are taken into account when deciding whether to cancel, divert or re-time a flight, and how to best manage a disruption, he said. They include the availability of crew, engineering support and aircraft.

For instance, if an affected flight is operated using a Boeing 787, not all of SIA’s overseas stations have the engineers or crew who are qualified to support it, limiting options to where the plane can be diverted.

“If we cancel the whole flight, what needs to be done to recover (from the cancellation)? If passenger loads remain and our subsequent flights are all full, then we will have to consider putting on extra flights or upgrading to a larger aircraft,” Mr Chye said.

Also needing consideration are rules regarding minimum rest periods for flight crew and the maximum hours they can be on flight duty. This affects labour deployment.

Mr Anthony Goh, 55, an assistant manager at SIA’s cabin crew control centre, said the airline has 40 to 50 crew members on standby daily to cater for such contingencies. He noted how Typhoon Saola coincided with Polling Day for the presidential election in Singapore, and some arrangements were made so that crew had time to vote before reporting for duty.

Once a decision to re-time or cancel a flight is made, an internal alert is sent. Upon receiving this, SIA’s customer care team, managed by Mr Keith Lien, 39, prepares messages for dissemination to affected passengers via e-mail or text message. Mr Lien’s team also helps affected customers with rebooking and refunds, and passes the necessary information to SIA’s contact centres, which are responsible for communicating with passengers directly.

He said: “We have an irregular-operations playbook, so there is a comprehensive plan for us to follow. Every disruption and delay is different, so it helps us be very clear on what to do.”

Helping passengers at the airport

On the ground, it is the job of Mr Teo Seng Choke and his team to manage affected SIA passengers at Changi Airport – for example, by arranging with airport restaurants to serve meals to those stranded.

Mr Teo, 62, SIA’s senior manager at the Singapore hub, said the airline has contracts with hotels here in case passengers need a place to stay when a flight is delayed.

Capt Gopala said SIA staff based in overseas stations also need to be on top of their game during disruptions to manage passengers, who will have plenty of questions.

Mr Teo noted that passengers are quick to give feedback online as well. Hence, SIA has a dedicated unit to monitor its social media channels and identify emerging concerns.

A recent incident that drew flak online was an SIA flight on Sept 6 from Shanghai to Singapore. Due to a technical fault, passengers were made to wait in the plane for nearly eight hours, with the flight ultimately being cancelled.

SIA said engineers were trying to rectify the technical issues to facilitate a quicker departure. It later admitted it should have allowed passengers to leave the plane earlier, and said it would review its procedures to avoid a repeat.

Mr John Yip, 55, duty manager of maintenance operations, said that from a technical standpoint, determining whether a plane can be allowed to fly is clear-cut.

“Everything is black and white, and done with a high safety margin. It is the operations where we always have to deal with a lot of unknowns,” he said.

“For example, if an aircraft has a technical issue at a station, but it is also scheduled for another flight, the question is: Can we fix this aircraft for the next flight, or do I need to move the flight to another aircraft, giving the engineering side time to fix the plane?

“And you know, there’s always Murphy’s Law, so we need to look at a Plan B, Plan C or Plan D.”

He highlighted the importance of planning, noting how the airline’s engineering team is always racing against time to complete a list of checks to make sure the next flight going out is safe.

Mr Yip said the weather in Singapore is another curveball – it is unsafe for engineers to be out on the tarmac when there is lightning, for instance.

“If they have to stop work, then the flight that was planned for this particular aircraft might have to be deferred, and I need to come up with another plan to find another aircraft to operate that service.”

With airports and airspaces increasingly congested, Capt Gopala said SIA has little margin for error. “If one of our aircraft has a technical defect and can’t go, there’s a domino effect,” he added.

Mr Chye, the operations control manager, said: “The acid test is managing something well when things go wrong. That’s where customers judge you.”