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Category: General

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest General Retail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Google makes Gmail work with iPad multitasking

    Google makes Gmail work with iPad multitasking

    Gmail is working great on either iPhones or iPads, but there was just one useful feature that was missing from the iPad version of the app – the ability to multitask with Gmail and other iOS applications.

    You can indeed make use of Apple’s so-called Split View feature and switch between Gmail and other apps, but the functionality doesn’t work flawlessly all the time. Although it took Google several years to implement multitasking within Gmail, the option is finally here.

    Google announced today that all Gmail accounts – G Suite and personal, can now make use of the multitasking feature with Gmail and other iOS applications. It works the same way as Split View, but it’s better to implement and specifically designed for Gmail.

    You’ll have to turn on Multitasking on your iPad before you’ll be able to use the new feature by heading to Settings app / Home Screen & Dock / Multitasking. From there, make sure to enable the “Allow Multiple Apps” option to be able to switch between apps.

    After you’ve enabled Multitasking, you can enter split view when in Gmail by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to open the dock. Then, touch and hold the app you wish to open and drag it to the left of the right edge of the screen.

  • Changi Airport and Jewel retailers resume operations

    Changi Airport and Jewel retailers resume operations

    More than 80 percent of restaurants and retail outlets have resumed operations at Singapore’s Changi Airport and colocated Jewel Changi shopping center, as the city entered phase 2 of its reopening post-Covid-19.

    Retailers and restaurants have to follow strict social-distancing safety measures as well as stringent cleaning and disinfecting regimes and stores are also offering contactless payments, takeaway services, self pick-ups to minimize the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

    Jewel will roll out a GST-Absorbed Shopping Extravaganza promotion and offer an additional US$7 cashback on purchases above US$57 to boost shopping traffic. Changi Airport and Jewel also offer delivery and drive-thru services for those who prefer to stay in their homes.

    Meanwhile, attractions at Jewel have also reopened, including the Canopy Park and the Changi Experience Studio.

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  • Global Brands Group posts massive US$598 million loss

    Global Brands Group posts massive US$598 million loss

    Global Brands Group has reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of US$598 million in the year to March.

    That followed a loss of $400 million the prior year, but the company claims its restructuring program involving axing brands and stores is paying off, citing a pre-tax profit of $151 million for the year.

    Group sales fell 28.5 percent to $US1.082 billion, but the company cut $209 million in operating costs

    Last year, Global Brands ditched a raft of brands in the US, including Copper Fit, Kenneth Cole, Juicy Couture, Jones New York, BCBG, Goats and Taryn Rose and also shuttered brick-and-mortar stores there.

    But it noted, “exciting progress” of new and emerging brands including B New York, Magna Ready, which produces clothes for people with disabilities, and sports & swimwear labels Saga (pictured above) and Dakine.

    “During the reporting period, we have experienced one of our most rewarding and yet, one of our most challenging years,” said CEO Rick Darling. “Throughout the fiscal year 2020, we have diligently focused on executing our restructuring program, and this dedication has resulted in strengthening our balance sheet and in improving our performance despite the unprecedented impact of Covid-19.”

    The brand shake-up, reduced low-margin sales, and negotiation of new supply agreements helped boost the company’s gross margin by more than 640 base points from 30.2 percent last year to 36.6 percent this year. Another factor in the improved margin was a focus on expanding its direct-to-consumer business model.

    Darling said the rapid spread of Covid-19 in February and March negatively impacted the group’s sales during the last quarter. But he believes the restructuring process the company has been through during the last two years has equipped the company to face the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, leaving it “well-positioned for growth going forward”.

  • AirAsia to lay off 30% of workforce

    AirAsia to lay off 30% of workforce

    AirAsia India is expected to let go of several of its employees as its part-owner, AirAsiaBerhad struggles to maintain its group operations across regions following the outbreak of coronavirus.

    AirAsia Berhad is set to reduce up to 30 percent of its workforce across regions including its Indian operations which it part-owns with Tata Sons as the group struggles to maintain its operations following the Covid-19 outbreak.

    Sources in the airline said that apart from salary reduction up to 75 percent, the group is seriously considering plans to let go between 25 percent and 30 percent of its entire workforce of about 20,000 across regions.

    An AirAsia India spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the possible measures being taken to retrench employees. As of December 2019, AirAsia India had a market share of 7 percent. It has a total fleet size of 30 aircraft and flies to 21 destinations across India.

    The airline sector is one of the most-affected industries since the outbreak of coronavirus across the countries. According to the airline consultancy firm CAPA, most airlines in the world could file for bankruptcy soon. “As the impact of the coronavirus and multiple government travel reactions sweep through our world, many airlines have probably already been driven into technical bankruptcy, or are at least substantially in breach of debt covenants.”

    As far as the airlines operating in India are concerned, CAPA said they are expected to incur a total loss of $3.6 billion during the first quarter of the current financial year. Cash reserves are running down quickly as fleets are grounded and what flights there are operate much less than half full, it said.

    Surprisingly, AirAsia India recently received its board’s clearance for increasing its borrowing limit by ₹1,000 crore to ensure it continues to pay leasing and parking charges for its grounded aircraft. AirAsia India is learned to be the first domestic airline to formally increase the borrowing limit. The decision to increase the limit from ₹500 crore to ₹1,500 crore was taken at a meeting of the shareholders in April.

    AirAsia India is a joint venture between Tata Sons, which owns 51 percent in the airline, and AirAsia Berhad. The special resolution was approved to carry out “existing and future financial requirements to support its business operations”

    AirAsia India, which has been struggling since it began its operations in June 2014, recorded a fourth-quarter net loss of ₹123.3 crore in FY19, which was 26 percent lesser than the same quarter in the previous year. It recorded revenues of ₹1,057.6 crore, a 65 percent increase from Q4 of FY18 on the back of a 38 percent increase in capacity, and a 19 percent increase in average fare.

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  • Singapore retail sales collapsed during May due to store closing

    Singapore retail sales collapsed during May due to store closing

    Singapore retail sales plummeted 52.1 percent in May as Covid-19 lockdowns shuttered malls and the majority of retail stores across the city-state.

    May’s year-on-year decline followed a 40.3 percent drop in April and represented the biggest drop since statistics were first collected in 1986.

    After removing motor vehicles from the data, the decline was only a slightly less dramatic 45.2 percent, compared with 32.5 percent in April.

    The closure of stores across the city caused a dramatic rise in online sales which accounted for 24.5 percent of the US$1.29 billion total turnovers.

    According to Statistics Singapore, 94.3 percent of sales of computer and telecommunications equipment in May were conducted online, 93.6 percent of furniture and household goods, and 9.6 percent supermarket sales.

    Every retail category recorded a sales decline except supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores. Supermarket and hypermarket turnover soared 56.1 percent and convenience stores by 9.1 percent.

    Sales of watches and jewelry, by department stores and apparel, fell by between 89.1 percent and 96.9 percent.

    As with traditional retail, the Circuit Breaker measures introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19 resulted in huge declines in the food & beverage sector as well. A 50.1-per-cent decline in May represented a tiny improvement from April’s 52.7 percent, with vendors able to supply only delivery or takeaway.

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  • Waze has hidden a secret Mood emoticon

    Waze has hidden a secret Mood emoticon

    At the end of last month, we told you about a UI overhaul for mapping app Waze. 30 colorful and funny emoticons have been added to represent your current mood. The app was purchased by Google in June of 2013 for a price believed to be in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion and it uses crowd-sourced traffic information to get you from point “A” to point “B” safely and on time.

    Some of the possible Mood choices include Funny, Sunny, Zombified, Wild, Chill, Furious, Geeky, Happy, Loved-up, Sneaky, Eco-friendly, Proud, Sad, Skeptical, Shy, Carsick, Zen and Speedy. To change your Mood, open the app, and tap on the Search box at the lower left of the screen. Tap on your name at the top of the screen to be taken to the “My Waze” screen. Click on Mood and select your emoticon.

    That sounds easy enough, but there is a hidden “Monster Mood” emoticon that you can select by tapping in a code. To summon the monster, you need to first make sure that you have updated Waze to the latest version of the iOS or Android app. Open the app and tap on Search. Instead of typing in a destination under your name, type in ##@morph. You will find that a one-eyed purple monster is now your selected emoticon right above your name on the My Waze page. It couldn’t be easier.

    Waze says that it is continuing to work on adding more Mood emoticons. “There is such an expansive world there for us to dig into, with so many unique emotions and feelings that we can represent through the Moods (our first set of 30 is just the beginning). We want to represent all different types of people in all different moments on their journey, and make people smile…even when there might not be much to smile about.”

    Even if you already consider Google Maps or Apple Maps to be your default navigator, why not give Waze a shot. Sure, some of the app’s features have been added to Google Maps, but there are many community-related features that make using Waze a completely different experience. On iOS, install the app by visiting the App Store. If you’re using an Android device, install the app from the Google Play Store.

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  • LinkedIn, Reddit, Google News and other apps caught spying on iPhone users’ clipboards

    LinkedIn, Reddit, Google News and other apps caught spying on iPhone users’ clipboards

    Last month, we told you that a new feature found in the iOS 14 beta detects when a third party app is spying on your iPhone’s clipboard. The latter is the place where data is temporarily stored while being copied from one app to another. Those running the iOS 14 beta preview noticed that they were receiving notifications that apps like TikTok and even AccuWeather were sniffing around an iPhone user’s clipboard and could copy things like PIN numbers, social security numbers and more. Some users received this notification every time they typed a punctuation mark or tapped the space bar on their iPhone’s QWERTY keyboard.

    Last week, Don Morton, a developer using the iOS 14 beta, was seeing a notification that Microsoft’s networking app LinkedIn was copying the content of his clipboard after every keystroke. When ZDNet got in touch with LinkedIn, a spokesperson said that this was all part of a bug. LinkedIn engineering VP Erran Berger said, “We don’t store or transmit the clipboard contents.” TikTok claimed that it appeared as though it was spying on iPhone clipboard data because of an anti-spam “fraud detection mechanism.” The popular short-form video app said that it never copied any content from anyone’s iPhone but it removed the mechanism anyway.

    Morton made a list of apps that iOS 14 is catching red-handed stealing clipboard data. The list includes apps that copied clipboard data after each keystroke and others that copied the data once the app was opened. The former list includes three names: TikTok, LinkedIn, and Reddit. We’ve already mentioned the responses from TikTok and LinkedIn. Reddit said that it is going to disseminate a software update to eliminate code that caused it to copy content from an iPhone user’s clipboard. The software update is expected to be pushed out on July 14th.

    Some password manager apps will automatically clear your clipboard after a certain period of time has passed. The 1Password app has a feature that when toggled on, will automatically clear any field copied from the app to the clipboard in 90 seconds. Some say that they will ask Apple to make access to the clipboard permission that users must agree to give to an app.

    In Morton’s blog post he wrote that this is a real problem. He said, “This is a problem. However, the real problem and thing that scares me is the fact that ANY app has the ability to access the clipboard without permission. I could easily see “phishing apps” starting to pop up (if they are not already) with the sole intention to scrape as much clipboard data as possible. To me, this is just as bad or even more worrying than the companies that have already been called out for it. For the most part, the companies that have been getting called out have a motive to be “good.” I’m just starting to think about companies or apps that have no intention of being good.”

    Once the notifications start appearing for everyone when the final version of iOS 14 drops, we will certainly have a better idea about how widespread this problem is.

  • AS Watson vows to reduce plastic waste, use only sustainable palm oil

    AS Watson vows to reduce plastic waste, use only sustainable palm oil

    AS Watson Group is the first signee to the New Plastics Economy global commitment to reduce plastics waste.

    The firm has also taken up group membership with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to help address the environmental impact of the industry.

    Both moves are part of the company’s strategy to achieve its 2030 Group Sustainability Roadmap – better waste management and more responsible Own Brand products.

    “We know our customers are increasingly aware of sustainability issues and therefore expect their chosen brands to share the same values as they do,” said AS Watson COO Malina Ngai, who is also CEO of AS Watson (Asia & Europe). “As the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer, we feel it is our responsibility to do more, so we are making a commitment to create a more sustainable environment and offer more sustainable product choices to our customers.”

    By participating in the initiative to reduce plastics waste, AS Watson will join forces with its business units to eliminate unnecessary plastic and to help reduce plastic pollution at the source. The firm has banned the use of microplastics in its rinse-off Own Brand cosmetics/personal care scrub products since 2014, and has been using 100-per-cent recycled PET in its bottled water business since 2015. It launched Hong Kong’s first reverse vending machine to collect used plastic bottles.

    “AS Watson is proud to enhance public awareness on sustainability issues by supporting two new important environmental initiatives,” said Ngai. “We hope that more retail groups can also make these meaningful pledges so that together we can make our planet more sustainable.”

  • Vietnam’s rapid retail recovery melts Covid virus gloom

    Vietnam’s rapid retail recovery melts Covid virus gloom

    Vietnam retail and service revenues surged by 5.3 percent in June over the same month last year – and by 6.2 percent over May.

    The figures are extraordinary given the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic on retailers and services during the first half of this year, with the country’s stores effectively shut down from late March to late April, and tourists banned from mid-March.

    Year to date, Vietnam retail and service revenues have dropped by just 0.8 percent compared to last year, generating US$103 billion despite the month-long shutdown.

    The figures were released by the General Statistics Office, and show retail revenue reached $18.67 billion last month. Vietnam traditionally releases figures for retail and service revenue within a couple of days of the end of the month covered, faster than most other countries, which tend to take a month or more to calculate the data.

    Sales of consumer goods accounted for 79.6 percent of retail revenue, increasing 3.4 percent year on year. Growth sectors include fresh-food products and home appliances. Sales of apparel and educational products fell by 1.2 percent and 6 percent respectively.

    Vietnam’s retail industry has seen a significant recovery since Covid-19 restrictions were eased in May. Most businesses in the country, except tourism, have resumed and some of them even expanded. Since April’s reopening, Uniqlo has opened three new stores in the country, and fellow Japanese retailer Muji is set to open its first store within weeks.

    One source said that a factor in June’s growth in the absence of tourists is that unlike countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, tourists to Vietnam don’t purchase a lot of higher-end luxury goods.

    “So the hit to retail from the decline in tourism would be a lot softer.”

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  • Sharp to launch new solar power plant in central Vietnam

    Sharp to launch new solar power plant in central Vietnam

    Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corporation will begin operating a 45 MW solar power plant in the central province of Ninh Thuan in July. The plant is a joint venture between Sharp Energy Solutions Corp., a subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, Vietnam’s T&T Group JSC, and its affiliate Ninh Thuan Energy Industry JSC.

    The new solar plant is expected to generate 76,373 MWh of electricity per year, enough to meet the average annual demand of 40,500 Vietnamese households. It can offset the equivalent of 25,458 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions a year, Sharp said in a recent statement.

    Japanese news agency Kyodo News quoted a spokesman of the giant as saying that Sharp has been pushing its solar power business in Asia, having built plants in Thailand, Indonesia, and Mongolia, on the back of expected growth in consumption of electricity.

    Solar power currently accounts for 0.01 percent of Vietnam’s total power output, but the government plans to increase the ratio to 3.3 percent by 2030 and 20 percent by 2050.

    Vietnam currently relies largely on hydropower and thermal power for its electricity needs, but its hydropower potential is almost fully exploited and oil and gas reserves are running low.

    Under its energy development plan, Vietnam aims to have renewables, mainly solar and wind, account for 10.7 percent of total energy production by 2030.

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  • 7 Web Design Best Practices to Improve Your eShop

    7 Web Design Best Practices to Improve Your eShop

    In order to have a successful eShop, your website must follow certain best practices that will put you way ahead of your competition and provide your website traffic with better user experience.

    The rule of thirds

    The rule of thirds originates from photography and is a type of composition in which an image is vertically and horizontally evenly divided into thirds. When it comes to website design, the rule of thirds proves to be useful as it allows UX and UI designers to strategically allocate website content to improve conversions.

    This is a commonly used tool that helps by creating balance and a well-structured composition for your website. The rule of thirds allows you to highlight elements and will automatically catch the attention of your consumer if placed in the right sweet spots.

    Human face effect

    Adding a human face to your website is a powerful tool that shouldn’t be underestimated.

    Humans are unconsciously looking for familiarities all the time, and by using the face of a human on your website that your visitors can relate to, you can create an emotional connection with your visitors and exude trust and authority.

    Besides making them trust your service, the emotional connection you leave them with is an effective tool for making your visitors remember you. Humans remember better after an emotional reaction has been created. Nowadays, websites like This Person Does Not Exist allow you to easily find human faces… generated by AI.

    If you can strategically manage to place a face on your website that will trigger emotions or guide their line of sight, that will completely transform your website’s UX.

    Simple navigation

    Creating a website that is simple and easy to navigate should be your top priority.

    It is one of the main factors that will determine whether your visitors have had a good user experience or not. User experience is crucial for your company, and if you intend on attracting traffic and generating sales on your website, you should consider making your website simple to navigate before anything else. That’s where UI (user interface) and visual design are important to make sure that the navigational structure allows the user to find relevant information and content fast.

    It will determine whether or not they will visit your website again.

    Loading times

    Your website loading speed can have a huge impact on the engagement of your visitors and therefore the number of conversions you’ll make.

    If it takes more than 2 seconds for your page to load, it could potentially cost you sales and missed revenue as people would bounce off your page and look for your service elsewhere, reported Akamai back in… 2009. What about now?

    Steps you can take to speed up your loading time could be limiting the use of images, use a content delivery network (CDN), minimise HTTP requests, reduce and combine files, loading JavaScript and CSS files asynchronously, and clean up plugins and files you don’t use.

    Colours & contrasts

    You can use colours and contrasts to fully enhance the visual look of your website, both for to make it more appealing to the eye and keeping your visitors’ interest, but also for the 4% of the population who suffer from colour-blindness.

    Using colours and contrast the right way can help you bring out elements and make the overall navigation of your website easier, which will ultimately improve your website’s UX and conversion rate. It is important to keep it simple and choose colours that complement each other. You wouldn’t want yellow writing on a white background, but choosing a black background with white writing can really help bring out the text.

    Call to action & visual elements

    Call to action buttons on your website are essential elements you’d want to bring onto your design. It provides users with a clear direction of what their next step should be when browsing around your website, and by visualising it (by for example using colour and contrasts) and using strong verbs, it is an effective tool that can lead to great user experience and conversions through easy accessibility.

    It is important to take the placement of the elements into mind as well. You would want to place them in a very prominent and strategic area where your visitor will notice them.

    Responsive design

    Internet users are going to be accessing your website through a wide range of devices including mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers, laptops and other.

    If you want to provide your users with the best shopping experience and maximise your website conversions, you need to make sure that your website has a responsive design and note that Google provides tools for you to check whether your website is mobile-friendly.

    Having a successful website in a competitive and saturated market can prove to be quite difficult. However, making sure that you follow best practices like having a responsive website design and a fast loading website will put you ahead of your competition. This will not only result in a lower bounce rate but will likely increase your website’s UX and conversion rates.

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  • Alibaba Cloud and Unilever to Usher in Next-Generation Digital Marketing Initiatives

    Alibaba Cloud and Unilever to Usher in Next-Generation Digital Marketing Initiatives

    Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group – is partnering with Unilever, one of the biggest multinational consumer goods companies, in a pioneering strategic initiative that will enable Unilever to action on next-generation digital marketing campaigns.

    In the partnership, Unilever will be able to utilize Alibaba Cloud’s trusted artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based technologies to optimize its omni-channel, online and offline demand generation activities. With intelligent analysis, Alibaba Cloud’s solutions can help to unlock detailed insights into Unilever’s customers buying patterns and behaviors. The data-driven business intelligence could help Unilever accelerate the creation of new and precisely targeted digital marketing campaigns. It could also enable Unilever to predict more precisely and quickly respond to changing customer buying habits across multiple platforms.

    Taking Unilever’s digital marketing to the next level, Alibaba Cloud’s solution can support optimized brand experience for consumers’ purchasing journey through Unilever’s online stores in Taobao and Tmall. The data intelligence provided by Alibaba Cloud can be easily translated into consumer insight, pivotal in enabling Unilever to expand its current and future product offerings in line with customer needs.

    The insights into anticipated and current customer demand, will also benefit Unilever’s supply chain, as well as optimize its route to market. A range of technologies from Alibaba Cloud underpin the data intelligence analysis, which include machine learning and AI to spot customer and market patterns:

    Dataphin, a unified PaaS platform for intelligent information processing and management; Analytic DB, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) managed database cloud service that can process enormous amounts of information in realtime; and Quick BI, an intelligent business analysis suite that generate business insights for enterprise users. With the strategic partnership, Alibaba Cloud will empower Unilever to leverage these technologies in the future.

    Fang Jun, VP Data and Digital, Unilever China: “Customer buying patterns are ever changing; when and where they buy has caused marketing to become even more agile and precise in order to stay relevant and reduce marketing waste. The use of Alibaba Cloud’s cutting-edge technology will ensure that our customers enjoy even more value from their relationship with the Unilever brand, through relevant campaigns and activities based on true insights into their buying preference.”

    “In the online, always connected world, getting customers’ attention is an ongoing challenge for marketers, so understanding what their customers want has never been more important. For marketers to keep on top of customers’ ever-changing needs and habits, the ability to understand their shopping habits is essential for keeping the brand messaging relevant for each customer,” said Selina Yuan, president of international business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “Alibaba Cloud’s solutions have the ability to unlock the customer insights needed, and are set to ensure Unilever continues to succeed and build brand loyalty with its customers amid a constantly evolving and complex market place.”

    The Unilever and Alibaba Cloud collaboration was announced at the Alibaba Cloud Global Summit, in which “China Gateway 2.0” was also launched. The program, that Unilever is part of, hopes to help Alibaba Cloud’s partners and customers to accelerate their growth in China by capitalizing Alibaba Cloud’s local business expertise, technologies and matured ecosystem.

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  • Vietjet honoured for “the Operating Lease Deal of the Year”

    Vietjet honoured for “the Operating Lease Deal of the Year”

    New-age carrier Vietjet has been honoured as the winner of “the Operating Lease Deal of the Year” for its 10 Airbus aircraft operating lease in 2019. The title is listed in the Annual Global Awards of the world’s prestigious aviation and aerospace finance industry magazine,Airfinance Journal.

    The deal, which was signed between Vietjet and Novus Aviation Capital in July 2019, covers five aircraft (three A321s and two A321neos) delivered in 2019 while the five remaining aircraft are scheduled for delivery this year.

    The award recognised Vietjet’s benefits from the transaction including the flexibility in financing structure, attractive pricing of the lease, repeat documentation, and aircraft delivery schedule.

    “The award is an acknowledgement of Vietjet’s relentless efforts in aircraft financing activities, which sets a strong base for the airline’s sustainable investment and development of new and modern fleet in the coming years,” said Ho Ngoc Yen Phuong, Vietjet Vice President and CFO.

    Vietjet was also previously listed in the Top 50 airlines for healthy financing and operations for two consecutive years of 2018 and 2019 by Airfinance Journal. It is the only Vietnamese carrier in the list, which showed the airline’s positive finance and growth indicators amongst top airlines worldwide.

    Published for more than 40 years, Airfinance Journal is a leading financial publication in the global aircraft and aviation business, headquartered in London. The Journal includes the latest news, analysis and data relating to the financing of aviation industry globally, covering airlines, airports, banks and financial institutions, leasing companies and others.

    Vietjet has been awarded the highest ranking for safety with 7 stars by the world’s only safety and product rating website, AirlineRatings.com. The airline has also been named as Best Low-Cost Carrier by renowned organisations such as Skytrax and CAPA in recent years.

  • Cebu Pacific to lay off more employees

    Cebu Pacific to lay off more employees

    Budget carrier Cebu Pacific will be laying off more employees across the board, as the airline industry reels from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. At least 30% of the 4,000-member workforce, or around 1,200 employees, could be affected by “layoffs or voluntary separation.”

    When asked for confirmation, Cebu Pacific communications director Charo Logarta Lagamon sent a statement confirming what the airline called “rightsizing.”

    “Cebu Pacific is undergoing a transformation process that aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of the business, given the expected changes in travel demand and consumer behavior. We expect travel recovery to happen over a longer period, with COVID-19 negatively impacting the aviation industry,” she said in a statement sent to Rappler.

    “The rightsizing of Cebu Pacific will be necessary to fulfill our commitment to provide affordable and accessible air transport services to every Juan in the years to come.”

    Layoffs will affect employees “across functions, roles, and departments,” Lagamon said. She added that the details have yet to be finalized.

    To stay updated on news, advisories, and explainers, check out our special coverage page, “Novel Coronavirus Outbreak.”

    This is the latest blow to the airline industry as demand for air travel plunged after the coronavirus spread across the world earlier this year, from the ground zero of the outbreak in Wuhan, China.

    Domestic flights in the Philippines resumed only in June when the capital region was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine, but these remained limited. Physical distancing must also be in place during flights, forcing airlines to leave half of the plane seats vacant.

    Back in March, Cebu Pacific laid off 150 newly hired cabin crew when Metro Manila was first placed under lockdown. Cebu Pacific executives had voluntarily taken pay cuts at that time.

    On June 18, the budget carrier’s ground handler 1Aviation Groundhandling Services Corporation announced that over 1,000 employees were laid off.

    Other airlines have been badly hit as well. In late February, flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) terminated some 300 employees to avoid further losses.

    AirAsia Philippines had to slash jobs by 12% too, laying off 260 employees.

    In a bid to help the industry, Philippine aviation authorities deferred charging airport fees for the year, including landing, takeoff, and parking fees.

    The Air Carriers Association of the Philippines estimated that the industry needs some P8.6 billion in government subsidy per month to survive.

  • TAT joins AirAsia to stimulating domestic tourism with new aviation safety standards

    TAT joins AirAsia to stimulating domestic tourism with new aviation safety standards

    The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) joined Thai AirAsia for a special activity taking place on the Bangkok-Krabi route on 29-30 June 2020, aimed at rebuilding confidence and revitalizing domestic tourism. This was done by bringing together medical workers, tourists, business operators, and the media in a trip showcasing the readiness of airline, venues, travel destinations, hotels, and restaurants, to provide safe and hygienic service.

    Governor of TAT, Yuthasak Supasorn, pointed out that domestic travel will be an important mechanism to jumpstart the economy at both the local and national levels, adding that this event will highlight traveling under the new normal, which focuses on adherence to healthcare advice, encouraging travelers and businesses alike to adapt and rehabilitate tourism.

    The TAT’s goal for this activity is supporting domestic tourism and promoting awareness of various safety practices for traveling, visiting sites, and staying in accommodation so that travelers can prepare accordingly.  The authority assures that measures being promoted are straightforward and that everyone will be able to travel conveniently in the new normal.

    Representatives from different sectors were invited to join in the activity, including medical professionals, travel companies and travel groups, all given the opportunity to experience present-day tourism using the concept “BEST, wherein B: Booking – covers before, during and after travel planning, travel companions, pre-booking and social distancing; E: Environment – covers environmental conservation and social responsibility; S: Safety – covers information for decision making as well as health and hygiene and T: Technology – incorporating the use of technology to facilitate contactless tourism and greater physical distancing.

    CEO of Thai AirAsia, Santisuk Klongchaiya remarked that travel and domestic spending in the nation is crucial at this time to stimulate the economy and tourism sector, affirming AirAsia’s support for TAT.

    From July onward, the airline will be resuming service to all 23 of its domestic destinations, including regional connections Chiang Mai-Hat Yai, Chiang Mai-Pattaya (U-Tapao), Hat Yai-Pattaya (U-Tapao) and Khon Kaen-Hat Yai for a total 25 routes, flying 68 return trips a day in support of travel and business.

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