They’re the first airline worldwide to operate a flight with employees who have received both vaccine doses
Emirates this week became among the first few airlines in the world to operate a flight with fully vaccinated frontline teams.
The flight from Dubai to Los Angeles on February 21st was supported by over 70 staff who had made the choice to get vaccinated – from check-in, to security, engineers, pilots as well as cabin crew.
Since launching the vaccination drive in mid-January, close to half of the group’s frontline employees, or 26,000 staffers have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.
Read more: Emirates, SIA begin staff vaccination drive
In addition, thousands more employees in other roles have taken their COVID-19 vaccine through the company’s clinics and vaccination centres, while others have opted to take their vaccine at one of the many vaccination centres across the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Our operational workforce are at the aviation frontline, helping people get to where they need to be, and moving essential goods to global communities,” said Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer at Emirates Airline.
“Protecting our people with vaccinations is important – for them, for our community, for the smooth running of our operations, and also for our customers – as it introduces of an additional layer of protection when they travel with us.
“We’ve seen a very positive response with high demand and take-up of the COVID-19 vaccine from our colleagues at the operational frontline, and there’s continued momentum in the rate of vaccinations across the business.”
Read more: COVID-19: Should vaccine be mandatory for airline workers?
Al Redha added that at the outset of the pandemic, Emirates implemented robust measures to prioritise the safety of their customers and employees at all stages of the travel journey. He’s hopeful that the airline can operate more flights with the high vaccine take-up rate.
“We are confident that with more people being vaccinated, combined with strong safety measures in place, we can all look forward to the easing of border entry guidelines for many countries,” he said.
