Singapore Airlines appoints JoAnn Tan as its first female CFO

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

The flag carrier of Singapore, Singapore Airlines, announced today that it appointed the airline’s first female Chief Financial Officer.

JoAnn Tan will take over as the CFO of the airline beginning on September 10.

Tan will be replacing Tan Kai Ping, who is moving over to the Chief Operations Officer role for Singapore Airlines.

JoAnn Tan taking over for Tan Kai Ping

Ping, who is the current Chief Financial Officer, will be moving to the COO role after the retirement of the current COO, Mak Swee Wah. Mak played a major role in growing the airline back to pre-pandemic levels and was the chair of the airline’s “restart task force.” He has spent 40 years with the Singapore Airlines Group and was also a former SilkAir Chairman.

Taking over for Mak Swee Wah is the current COO, Tan Kai Ping. The airline stated that Ping’s experience in running multi-year initiatives to strengthen its resilience played a major part in the selection process.

Ping also played a major role in the group’s successful fundraising during the COVID-19 pandemic and in managing the restructuring of the airline’s future aircraft orders during this time while still considering future demand.

Ping was also significantly involved in the proposed merger between Air India and Vistara.

As Tan Kai Ping will move over to the COO role beginning in September, JoAnn Tan will take over as the CFO and become the airline’s first CFO in its long history.

Tan, who is currently in the role of Senior Vice President of Market Planning, was a major part of opening up the airline’s international connectivity after the COVID-19 pandemic began to slow down. The airline released a statement regarding the new CFO, stating, “This was critical in helping (SIA Group) to capture the significant pent-up demand for air travel and deliver its record passenger revenue in FY2022/23.”

Tan played a major role in creating new connections with its budget airline Scoot. She also oversaw other businesses that are part of the Singapore Airlines Group, such as KrisFlyer, Kris+, and Pelago. The group’s statement also read, “Under Ms. Tan’s watch, SIA has also deepened its strategic partnerships with multiple airlines around the world, entrenching its presence in key markets and giving customers more options.”

Singapore Airlines continues growing post-pandemic

The airline has been active since the pandemic ended with several new policy changes and expanding its array of destinations.

While noticing increasing demand, Singapore Airlines will increase its flights to Australia during the summer peak.

In early May, Singapore Airlines began flying a second daily Airbus A380 service to Sydney and returned its A380 service to Melbourne during the summer.

These changes will increase the number of seats between Australia and Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) by almost 7,000.

Originally, the daily A380 flight to Melbourne was expected to stop by the end of October, but with this new announcement, the airline will fly this route until November 21st.

At this time, the Airbus A380 will shift to flying to Auckland, New Zealand, to meet its summer travel demand there as well.

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