Major airlines in the U.S. have until Jan. 4 to ensure that all employees are vaccinated or have been granted a religious or medical exemption to comply with the Biden Administration’s mandate for federal contractors.
Carriers, including Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Fort Worth-based American Airlines, have been pushing workers to comply with the program since early October when the White House told airlines they would have to comply with the program or risk losing out on millions of dollars worth of federal contractors, including deals for flying to small communities and transporting Department of Defense employees.
A month ahead of the deadline, here’s where airlines stand on efforts to vaccinate workers.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines told employees in a memo this weekend that approximately 93% of workers have complied with its vaccine program, which includes both submitting proof of full vaccination or applying for a medical or religious exemption.
Of those, Southwest said “the large majority of our compliant employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”
Southwest has said that employees that don’t comply will risk losing employment, but CEO Gary Kelly also said “we’re not going to fire any of our employees over this.”
Meanwhile, anti-mandate groups say they have the support of thousands of Southwest employees and that they won’t give up until the company abandons the vaccine requirements.
American Airlines
The other North Texas-based commercial airline, American Airlines, has given fewer details on exactly how many employees are vaccinated. In October, CEO Doug Parker said that “the vast majority of employees are already vaccinated, and we’re seeing that rise every day.”
Parker said he expected all employees to either be fully vaccinated or apply for an exemption ahead of the Nov. 24 deadline, which was later pushed back to Jan. 4. The American CEO also said that the company would “continue to work with those employees”…