Your COVID-19 Vaccine Guide To Flying The Friendly Skies

ACROSS AMERICA — While some Americans remain hesitant to fly during the coronavirus pandemic, several major U.S. airlines are trying to ensure safer travels by implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all employees.

Southwest Airlines on Tuesday became the latest U.S. airline to mandate the vaccine for its workers. The company joins several other U.S. airlines that have rolled out similar mandates.

Most Americans seem to support such measures to make travel by plane safer. An August poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found a majority of U.S. adults support vaccination mandates for those traveling by airplane.

Still, despite public opinion and seemingly pro-vaccine stances, most airline executives haven’t had much choice in the matter.

Driven by the federal mandate requiring vaccines for all federal workers and contractors, the White House has pushed most major U.S. airlines to ensure staff are vaccinated by Dec. 8, the same deadline for other federal contractors.

While some airline executives have asked the Biden administration to push back the implementation date until after the holidays, most are moving forward anyway in hopes of meeting the Dec. 8 deadline.

If you’re planning to travel soon and prefer your flight crew be vaccinated, here’s what you should know before you book that trip:

United Airlines

Chicago-based United Airlines set the stage for other airlines when it announced in early August that it would require employees in the United States to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

United, which has 67,000 employees in the United States, was the first major U.S. airline to announce it would require vaccines for workers. The company set a deadline of late October.

Company leaders called it a matter of safety and cited "incredibly compelling" evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccines.

"We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees," CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told employees Aug. 6. But, they added, "the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated." » Employees Required To Be Vaccinated: United Airlines, via Chicago Patch

American Airlines

American Airlines joined several other airlines when it announced a company-wide mandate on Friday.

In a letter to staff, American executives said the decision was due to the company's classification as a government contractor, according to a report by The Hill. In September, President Joe Biden mandated COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers.

Their letter didn’t specify a deadline for the company’s 100,000 employees to be vaccinated. It also didn’t mention an option for employees to get regularly tested, The Hill reported.

While executives said the decision to mandate vaccines was “difficult,” they also said, “it is what is required of our company, and we will comply.”

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines on Monday became the latest U.S. airline to require its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Dallas-based company said its workers must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 in order to remain at the airline. Employees can seek approval to skip the shots due to medical or religious reasons.

Southwest officials said they also had to mandate vaccines because of a Biden administration mandate requiring the vaccine for all federal workers and contractors. » Southwest Is Latest Airline To Mandate Vaccines For Workers, via Dallas Patch

Delta Airlines

Georgia-based Delta remains the lone airline that has not issued a broad COVID-19 vaccine for employees.

The company is requiring new hires to be vaccinated, according to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Existing employees, while not required to be vaccinated, will pay a monthly $200 health insurance surcharge starting in November should they choose not to get vaccinated. Employees will also be required to take weekly COVID-19 tests and wear masks.

Frontier Airlines

The same day United Airlines announced its vaccination mandate, Frontier Airlines rolled out its own policy. In a memo posted to the company’s website, Frontier officials said it would require “all direct employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”

The company set a deadline of Oct. 1.

Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines does not require its employees to be vaccinated. In late July, CEO Ted Christie told CNBC that the company is “strongly encouraging” employees to get vaccinated but it is not offering any incentives to do

JetBlue & Alaska Airlines

On Friday, both JetBlue and Alaska Airlines announced that employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19. In making the decisions, both companies cited the requirements of their government contracts, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Both companies told workers they would likely need to be vaccinated by Dec. 8.