Hawaiian Airlines just became the third US airline to require that all staff be vaccinated against Covid-19. The mandate will be effective November 1.
CEO Peter Ingram said that there would be exceptions for medical or religious reasons.”There is no greater demonstration of our values than ensuring the safety of others. Safety is the foundation of air travel, and it is ingrained throughout our operation and service. This is no different.”
Timing of the mandate is similar to United Airlines.
UAL said last Friday that vaccination is “incredibly compelling” and that it will require its entire 67K employees to be vaccinated by October 25. They may even move that date closer. Then, Frontier became the second airline on Friday, and today, Hawaiian became the third. The remaining US airlines may well follow suit. United acknowledged that “some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” according to CEO Scott Kirby. United had already required new hires to be vaccinated since June.
Full vaccine approval and airline vaccination mandates are closely tied.
Timing of the implementation of these mandates appears to be in concert with expected upcoming full approval from FDA for one or more of the vaccines. United said that the mandate would take effect five weeks after full approval, which may be sooner than October 25. The airlines will also require proof of vaccination rather than accepting employees’ word for it.
At United, employees who are already vaccinated or become vaccinated by September 20 will receive a bonus of an extra day of pay.
Thus far, American, Delta, and Southwest have not ordered employees to be vaccinated. Delta, however, already requires that new hires be vaccinated. Once the vaccines have full FDA approval, the mandates could well be industry-wide.
Delta variant impacting forward Hawaii travel reservations.
Travel has been on a tear for nearly six months. However, that appears to be taking somewhat of a pause due to the highly contagious Delta variant. We’ll see how that plays out in the coming weeks, which will be largely dependent on whether the Delta variant peaks and then declines soon or does not.
Question: Do airline vacation mandates influence your choice of carriers to Hawaii?
Delta, Southwest, & American came out with a statement saying they will not require employees to get the vaccine. I’m not against vaccines but I am against forcing people to. My grandparents came to the US from France and experienced horrible things during the war. They constantly warn our family about what they are seeing here in the USA. As Dr Redfield said in an interview several days ago, this virus was created in a lab & unfortunately it is not behaving like previous SARS viruses. Just look at Iceland, where 90% of men & 96% of women are vaccinated. Yet they are seeing spiking rates of reinfection that are overwhelming their health system. news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/iceland-deals-with-growing-delta-outbreak-as-high-vaccination-rates-stop-deaths/news-story/b970a814615715e573d67b3a1c1525f0
No, I’d prefer all the passengers be vaccinated! Honestly, have little or no contact with airline employees or flight attendants
Aloha guys!! Thank you for bringing this information to light.
Being that I have 3 family members that cannot be vaccinated, it only makes me happier that Hawaiian Airline is going ahead and having it’s employees vaccinate.
I know this is a hot button topic so I applaud you for bringing it up.
The science will be complete when the FDA gives it’s blessing to the vaccine.
I honestly believe that people are inherently good hearted and can only have other’s in mind by being vaccinated. This whole Covid mess has been something that I think we could have all lived happily forever without, but since it’s here, the piper must be paid. I’m happy to do whatever it takes to protect others. I want our beautiful islands open to Ohana and visitors as soon as possible.
You guys are the best!!! Mahalo for your kindness and reporting. We here love you there so much 💟
Stay safe and keep that news coming.
Aloha nui oi.
💕💕💕💕💕💕
Hi Pam.
Thank you! We were both wondering where you were – hadn’t heard from you in a bit. You mean a lot to us, obviously.
Aloha.
The Us Supreme Court held more than 100 years ago that vaccinations can be required when there is a public health emergency.
On my recent SWA flight from Dallas to San Jose, I had maybe 30 seconds of contact with SWA employees. That was “What kind of drink do you want” and “Do you want a bag of pretzels”. Their vaccination status meant nothing to me.
I’m not impressed with the self-righteous UAL vaccination mandate. How about UAL doing these three things for their customers. (1) Don’t make me sit on the tarmac for two hours while you fiddle with “mechanical problems”. (2) Don’t make my wife and I spend another 100 bucks for “Preferred Seats”instead of being crammed into seats in the back of a plane by a stinky restroom. (3) Don’t make me spend 75 bucks to store a couple of suitcases.
Feel Safe ? Thoughts-My brother in law runs a Hospital in OC, California. His sister runs an even bigger Hospital. Current hospitalizations are running 60% fully vaccinated/40% unvaccinated. The vaccinated are spreading Covid. My hubby co-worker’s wife is ER doc, they all had Covid already- Guess who has has Covid again? The whole family of fully vaxxed. Freedom of Bodily autonomy IS guaranteed under the US Constitution!..You can choose to FLY with an airline with fully vaxxed staff OR not. I personally know within hours of Covid vaccine 4 people who DIED, 4 young men who had HEART Attacks (& subsequent surgeries), 4 Dead Babies via miscarriage (4,6,7,7 months) and now one permanently blind in one-eye 19 year-old young man. The Covid injection is still in an “experimental trail stage” (EUA_Emergency Use only not FDA approved) & yeah you may feel “safe” on a plane with those participating in the experiment or again you may choose NOT to fly on said airline…I know what my dear friend, a Delta pilot and my family will do..
You are not telling the truth Nita, if you don’t want to get the vaccine for whatever
internet reason you want that’s your choice….but you should not be spreading misinformation about something that has saved countless thousands of lives.
Your post is not factual.
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of stories like this across the web, from not only the US, but across the world. It’s truly sad! 😢
Like the saying goes, if it’s on the internet it has to be true! 🙂
Nita, sorry, but pretty much everything you said is not true. Not sure where you’re getting your info, but these posts from armchair experts are exhausting. Pretty much every single trusted source is saying the same thing, that this is a surge of the unvaccinated. At least in terms of who’s getting hospitalized and/or dying. I was trying to just ignore them, but by leaving them out there they become a source for OTHER armchair experts, etc. It’s called confirmation bias, and it’s running rampant on social media. If anyone wants to know the truth, look at this: healthline.com/health-news/risks-of-the-delta-variant-for-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-people
BTW Joerg there was an article just now in the news about the many misinformation stories circulating about the vaccine. The 60/40 split one she used is a version of one that had it’s roots in England. It was a mistake and when the person that had been misquoted corrected it had already exploded on the internet.
Canada has surpassed us with vaccinations and the editorial on that said it can be attributed to one major difference between Canada and the U.S……they never politicized it. All the main political parties agreed that the well being of the citizens was far more important then trying to make political gains with any single voter base by stoking fear with conspiracy theories.
John W, yes I read that article about Canada as well. They have their own issues up there, but politicizing a public health emergency certainly isn’t one of them. They also said that Canada got a later start in vaccinating people, and STILL have passed us. And those are the nationwide numbers. In some of the states where the hospitals are filling up the vaccination rates are MUCH lower than the national average.
Very nice to know that Hawaiian has taken this extra step to protect their customers.
Everything they (or any airline) does to enhance passenger safety is a good thing. Isn’t amazing that some have a problem with that? Safety mandates are a very important part of the airline industry. If you want to be responsible for the lives of others you have to be responsible yourself.
I know a lot of HA employees, the have an exceptional employee group and I’m confident they will step up to the plate. There will be some outliers as their always is, but less so at Hawaiian, the vast majority will do what’s right.
Oh and by the way, they are not just protecting their passengers with this step, they are doing their part to protect Hawaii.
If you actually believe that the half dozen employees you may have direct contact with can’t spread the virus to you after being vaccinated, and is anything other than an insignificant step of protection, then you’re quite disillusioned. Especially when you have to spend a few hours (at least) wading through a sea of hundreds of customers, who may or may not have been tested or vaccinated; then, travel through at least 2 airports (likely more), at least 1 airplane to/from Hawaii. This step offers little to no protection to anyone. It’s a publicity move to appease the powers that be, and to make people like you “feel good” about it, Bud.
You take a risk, and it’s already a small one, with the protocols the airlines already have in place. It’s a risk You should be able to choose (or not), just like you should be able to choose to take the vaccine (or not).
Not quite sure how you think a vaccinated person can spread the virus as easily as an unvaccinated person but that really just goes to show you how many different perspectives are out there and some pretty unique ones are floating around. This will never be everyone thinking the same way and of course the internet has fueled some pretty crazy stuff. Bottom line is having vaccinated employees versus unvaccinated one’s clearly reduces the chance of spreading the virus, there is simply no rational argument against that.