Major airlines are starting to require COVID19 vaccination among employees. However, it’s a different story for small regional airlines. Some regional airlines that fly under major carriers’ names haven’t required vaccination—at least for now. Major carriers such as United, American, and Delta use small carriers to expand their services and fly shorter routes.
Small Regional Airlines Under Major Airlines
Mesa, Envoy, SkyWest, and United’s contractor CommutAir haven’t put in place a vaccine mandate yet. Instead, representatives from these small regional airlines want to evaluate if they have to put in place a mandate at all.
The Biden administration announced last month that federal contractors need to ensure vaccination among their employees by December 8. Aside from federal contractors, businesses with more than 100 employees will also have to enforce vaccination among employees. Businesses with unvaccinated employees need to ensure regular testing.
Small regional airlines will most likely fall under the category of businesses with more than 100 employees.
Somewhat Murky
The CEO of Mesa Air Group Jonathan Ornstein said that “It’s somewhat murky”. For now, the carrier is still waiting for clarity on the new federal policy. However, Ornstein said that the airline is going to comply with the federal mandates.
Ornstein is concerned about losing workers if the company decides to require vaccination without a federal requirement. He said “I’m concerned that if in the hypothetical we were to mandate a vaccination and there were other job opportunities that didn’t mandate vaccines (some employees) would leave”.
Major Airlines Requiring Vaccination
American, Alaska, Southwest, and JetBlue announced that their employees will have to get vaccinated to comply with the federal rules. Before Biden’s announcement, these airlines were simply encouraging employees to get the vaccine. United is the only airline that implemented its own vaccine mandate in August. United announced that 96% of its 67,000 already submitted their proof of vaccination.
