Singapore Airlines Ltd.'s chief executive officer said that surplus capacity in the industry remains a challenge and the marquee carrier's focus continues to be on delivering cost-efficient services.

The group is in the midst of a review to fend off intensifying competition from Middle Eastern carriers at the premium end and low-cost operators at the budget end. The transformation may include job cuts, the company said in June, and two months later it offered its cabin crew three months of voluntary unpaid leave.

"As we change the way we work the new processes, as new technologies are introduced, some jobs our staff is performing will no longer be required," CEO Goh Choon Phong said in Singapore Thursday on the sidelines of an event marking the delivery of an A380 aircraft from Airbus SE. "Our people fully understand the need for transformation."

The airline said profit almost tripled in the quarter through September, aided by an increase in passenger and cargo traffic. It reported a surprise loss in the quarter through March, the first in five years, prompting Goh to kick off bold and potentially radical actions to tackle costs and "to better position the group for long-term sustainable growth across its portfolio of full-service and budget airline operations."