Status: 03.10.2021 12:26 p.m.
In the USA, from December, only companies with vaccinated employees will receive government contracts. Under this pressure, other airlines are now introducing mandatory vaccination. Lufthansa would like to do that too.
Under pressure from government requirements, other US airlines are obliging their employees to have corona vaccinations. American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Jet Blue ordered this at the weekend – as reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, citing circulars to employees.
US President Joe Biden has decreed that from December 8th, only companies with vaccinated employees will be able to get government contracts. Several airlines assume that they fall under this rule.
United Airlines had previously prescribed corona vaccinations for all employees. More than 96 percent met the requirement, but almost 600 employees refused and should be fired. Around half of them then gave in, as the “Wall Street Journal” reported, citing United.
Lufthansa continues for compulsory vaccination
Deutsche Lufthansa would also like to introduce compulsory vaccinations for its flight personnel. Otherwise, according to the airline, stable, global flight operations will not be feasible in the future. Individual countries such as Hong Kong already required the vaccination for pilots, flight attendants and flight attendants. “As an airline that operates worldwide, we advocate mandatory vaccination for our crews and also need a way to record vaccination data,” affirmed Lufthansa Executive Board member Detlef Kayser in “Bild am Sonntag”.
The group expects that Canada and the USA will soon enact similar regulations. “In the case of the Hong Kong crews, employees must generally state before departure whether they meet the entry requirements. In Hong Kong, this also includes the corona vaccination,” said a Lufthansa spokesman for the newspaper.
Evidence of other vaccinations is common
Lufthansa has long wanted its flight personnel to be fully vaccinated against Corona, but has not yet been able to rely on a mandatory vaccination as with the Swiss subsidiary Swiss. The Lufthansa subsidiary introduced this in August and wants to terminate cabin crew who cannot be vaccinated against the corona virus. Everyone must be fully vaccinated by December 1st.
For decades, proof of other vaccinations, for example against yellow fever, has been common practice for Lufthansa crews on long-haul missions in order to meet the entry requirements of many countries, according to Lufthansa. For deployment planning, it must at least be possible to request and record the Covid vaccination data from crews.