Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie announced that employees should be getting the COVID19 vaccine. Christie said in an email that “The federal government has made it clear that COVID19 vaccination or testing requirements will be mandated for companies with more than 100 employees”. He added that Spirit Airlines will comply with the new federal rules on vaccination.
Christie said that the implementation of the vaccine mandate will depend on the government. However, he said that “but we will be moving forward with new health and safety policies in any case”.
The airline had around 8,700 employees before the end of 2020. However, Spirit is in the process of hiring additional pilots, flight attendants, and other staff.
A Spirit Airlines spokesperson confirmed that the company will give their employees more details in the next weeks.
Federal Contractors and Businesses with More than 100 Employees
Major airlines that are federal contractors don’t have the option to offer regular testing to unvaccinated employees. American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Southwest Airlines told their employees to get vaccinated before December 8. Delta is the only major airline that hasn’t issued a vaccine mandate.
A JetBlue spokesperson said that the company wondered whether there may be an extension to the December 8 deadline. However, JetBlue had to require vaccination since “the federal government has indicated that it is not pushing back the date”.
Several small regional airlines, on the other hand, haven’t required COVID19 vaccination to their employees, yet. The CEO of Mesa Air Group, Jonathan Ornstein, said that he is concerned that a vaccine mandate could potentially push employees to leave the company.
Friction Caused by the New Federal Rules on Vaccination
Some airline workers are against the federal rules on vaccination. Some workers from Southwest Airlines and American Airlines started their protests over their companies’ vaccine mandates.
According to Southwest and American Airlines, unvaccinated employees by November 24 will face termination. Both airlines are allowing employees to request religious or medical vaccine exemptions. However, it is unclear how many employees can get the exemption.
