Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Corporatisation of Changi Airport -Forming the Changi Airport Inc.

While it wasn't an overnight decision to corporatise the nation's gem, physical development ss and actions were only materialised in the recent timeline. Corporatisation, of course, is certainly vastly different from privatisation but it is seemed as an intermediate or the mid-point between the latter and being a state-owned entity.

I personally have my reservations about this exercise as a passenger and a customer of the Changi Airport. Of cos, this issue really depends on which direction one is coming from. At the National level, it seems to be an obvious and populous decision as we've seen Singtel, PSA and of course, SMRT doing fairly well after dislocating from the Authority. At the National level, the airport is seeing that talents are draining amidst the likes of Dubai, the rapidly growing aviation giant. However, is corporatisation the only method to resist the talent drain? To me, i believe that it is beyond the monetary gains for certain employees who chose to leave for a greener pasture.

In my opinion, I believe that the personal touch, personal development and personal connection with the association ranks the top in my "loyalty" though i am not officially a member of the working force. Yet, even when in the past, as a part-timer or intern, what i would love is the connection with the management, which seems to dwindle as the corporation grows bigger. It seems inevitable as one progresses through the ranks and echelons, he begins to drift away from the every point he started from. Hence, perhaps it attribute to the high turnover rate in certain companies and i really think it is very necessary to connect to the people under, as much as to the people higher.

Back to corportisation, i believe that as a whole, it definitely will steer and drives up the overall competitiveness of Changi Airport, whom has been facing incremental competition as regional airports began to take-off. No doubt it is necessary to uphold the reputation as the Best Airport, what i do treasure still is the connection with the passengers. Passenger traffic, at the least, is the most important performance indicator and i believe that increasing the service charges/taxes for both the passengers and airlines alike will see a surge in profit for the airport company yet in the long run, it may prove detrimental for the overall health.

As such, I believe that, from the last correspondence with DDG(Ops), i fully agree with him that the new regulatory authority should first let the airport company spread her wings, settle down then tighten the regulatory strings thereafter. There's virtually no point in enforcing strict regulations while compromising on the operations of the new airport company.Yes , i do believe the challenge lies in how much is much, how little is little... For the NewCAA, NewCo..cheers!