Over the past four decades, SIA has earned a stellar reputation in the fiercely competitive commercial aviation business by providing customers with high-quality service and dominating the business travel segments. SIA has been the most awarded airline in the world for many years. For example, it won the World’s Best Airline Award from the prestigious UK travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler 23 out of the 24 times it has been nominated, from the prestigious UK travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler , and it won Skytrax’s Airline of the Year award three times over the past decade. These awards are a reflection of SIA’s customer focus—according to Mr.
Tan Pee Teck, senior vice president (Product and Services), “It’s not just consistency that we need to maintain, but also an overall elevation in the average standard of service to a higher threshold, because the expectations of frequent flyers especially will rise in tandem.”
One key element of SIA’s competitive success is that it manages to navigate skillfully between poles that most  companies think of as distinct: delivering service excellencein a cost-effective way. SIA’s costs are below all other fullservice airlines. From 2001 to 2009, SIA costs per available seat kilometer were just 4.6 cents. According to a 2007 International Air Transport Association study, the costs for full-service European airlines were 8 to 16 cents; for U.S.
airlines, 7 to 8 cents; and for Asian airlines, 5 to 7 cents per available seat kilometer.

STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Describe what is so special about the five elements of SIA’s successful HR practices?
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of each element’s contribution toward SIA’s leadership in service excellence and costeffectiveness.

3. Despite evidence that such practices help service firms achieve higher company performance, many organizations have not managed to execute them as effectively. Why do you think that is the case?
4. Why do you think U.S. full-service airlines largely are undifferentiated, low-quality providers? What are the reasons that none of the full-service airlines positions itself and delivers as a high service quality provider?
5. Some of SIA’s HR practices would be frowned upon in the United States and Europe (e.g., having cabin crew on time-based contracts that are renewable every five years). Is this fair competition (i.e., desired competition between regulatory frameworks, as was favored by former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher), or is this arbitration of regulatory environments that encourages a “race to the bottom” in terms of employee rights?
6. How do people feel if they are working in a culture that focuses so intensely on customers but cuts costs to the bone internally?
7. View https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZOWrb39xLo (Making every journey personal | Singapore Airlines) and discuss how these videos might be perceived by SIA cabin crew.