Goh Choon Phong () is a

Singaporean Singaporeans are the citizens and nationals of the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is home to a people of a variety of ethno-racial-religious origins, with the city-state itself being a multi-racial, multi-cultural, m ...

businessman who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA or SQ) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Changi Airport. Considered to be one of the world's best carriers, the airline is ranked as a 5-star airline as well as ranked ...

and

Singapore Airlines Cargo Singapore Airlines Cargo (abbreviation: SIA Cargo) is the unit within Singapore Airlines (SIA) responsible for air cargo operations. It was incorporated in 1988. SIA Cargo manages the cargo operations of SIA's fleet of freight- and passenger air ...

. He was formally appointed to be the CEO on 1 January 2011 in an announcement dated 3 September 2010. Prior to his appointment, he worked for the SIA group for more than 20 years for the airlines' operations in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

Early life and education

Goh was born in July 1963 in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. He graduated from

Hwa Chong Junior College The Hwa Chong Junior College () was a Junior college (Singapore), junior college in Singapore offering Education in Singapore#Pre-university, pre-university education. The school merged with The Chinese High School on 1 January 2005 to form the ...

, and is an alumnus of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, majoring in computer science, management science and cognitive science. He also holds

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Career

Goh joined

after finishing his Masters degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a cadet administrative officer, fulfilling the sponsorship Singapore Airlines offered to him to pursue his studies at MIT. Subsequently, Goh rose up the ranks, taking on appointments such as Senior Vice President of Commercial Technology, Senior Vice President of Information Technology, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Chairman of SilkAir, a former subsidiary of

which has since merged with Singapore Airlines. He was appointed as CEO of Singapore Airlines on 1 January 2011, replacing outgoing CEO Chew Choon Seng who was retiring. As CEO, Goh led the airline group in its expansion phase after the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

and the recovery from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which brought the aviation industry to a halt in the early 2020s. Notably, the group recovered strongly post-pandemic, and achieved a record annual profit of S$2.68 billion in fiscal year 2023-2024. Also under his leadership, he headed the consolidation of Singapore Airlines Group's business, merging its two wholly-owned budget carriers

Tigerair Tiger Airways Singapore Pte Ltd, operating as Tigerair, was a low-cost airline headquartered in Singapore. It operated services to regional destinations in Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, China and India from its main base at Singapore Ch ...

and

Scoot Scoot Pte Ltd, operating as Scoot, is a low-cost airline based in Singapore and a subsidiary of the country's flag carrier Singapore Airlines. It began its operations on 4 June 2012 on medium and long-haul routes from Singapore, predominantly t ...

into a single entity

, and the merger of SilkAir, a wholly-owned full service carrier subsidiary, into the main carrier

. He also oversaw Singapore Airline's

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with

Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate group of companies headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest business conglomerate, with products and services in over 160 countries, and operations in 100 c ...

to form a new Indian full service carrier, Vistara, and the subsequent merger of Vistara with

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

, in which Singapore Airlines obtained a 25.1% stake in the newly rebranded airline. Goh also looked after Singapore Airlines' response to the SQ321 incident, where severe

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...

over the Irrawaddy Basin hit the Singapore Airlines B777-300ER plane enroute from

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingd ...

Singapore Changi Airport Singapore Changi Airport ( ; ) is the primary international airport that serves the country of Singapore, and is one of the largest transportation hubs in Asia. More than 100 airlines operate from the airport, with flights to destinations in A ...

, resulting in a fatality and leaving many severely injured. In recognition of his efforts, Goh was awarded with accolades such as the 2015 Centre for Aviation’s Asia-Pacific Airline CEO of the Year award, 2016 Eisenhower Global Innovation Award from the Business Council for International Understanding, 2017 Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Business Time's Singapore Business Awards, 2019 Singapore Corporate Award's Best Chief Executive Officer for companies with $1 billion or more in market capitalization, and Tatler's Asia Most Influential 2022 & 2023. Most recently in 2024, Goh was awarded the 2024 Excellence in Leadership Award at the

Air Transport World ''Air Transport World'' (''ATW'') is an online and print trade publication covering the global air transportation industry. It is owned by Informa and is a sister publication to '' Aviation Week'', the ''Aviation Daily'' and ''MRO Digest'', whi ...

(ATW) magazine’s annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards. Goh is currently also a member of the National University of Singapore's Board of Trustees, and an independent director of Mastercard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goh, Choon Phong 1963 births Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Singapore Airlines people Singaporean chief executives Chief executives in the airline industry