American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said in an interview that while the airline will offer 'incentives' to encourage employees to get vaccinated, the carrier will not make vaccinations a requirement.
Parker was speaking on well-known tech journalist Kara Swisher's 'Sway' Podcast and said vaccine requirements 'isn’t something we’re looking to do.'
“In a world where we still have, whatever it is, 40% of the United States not vaccinated for reasons only they can explain, requiring vaccinations to travel and not requiring vaccinations to do anything else around the country isn’t something we’re looking to do,” Parker said in the interview.
Emily Rella of Entrepreneur Reports:
Parker also said he would rather focus on incentives to encourage employees to be vaccinated rather than issue a company mandate, something the company has been doing in the form of extra vacation days and $50 gift cards.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Parker views vaccine requirements for passengers as a no-go, noting that the effort would be “incredibly cumbersome,” especially on crowded flights and highly populated airports.
Predictably, social media was ablaze with arguments on both sides...
@united Thanks for helping me make my decision. Will be flying @AmericanAir moving forward! Mandating employee vaccines, give me a break!
— Eric Champignon (@echampignon) August 10, 2021
Hurray @UnitedAirlines_ ! Boo @AmericanAir Planning to switch my loyalty program if there is a big difference in safety and responsibility between the two. https://t.co/B32KJPdyMI
— Nora Newcombe (@NoraNewcombe) August 6, 2021
@AmericanAir will be getting more of my business since they will not be making experimental mRNA therapies, “vaccines” mandatory for its employees. @united maybe you should reconsider your mandate for employees. It isn’t safe for everyone. As of today on VAERS 12K + deaths
— VMC (@MontVero) August 10, 2021
Last week, United Airlines said all employees must be vaccinated by October 25th or risk being fired from their jobs.
Frontier followed suit by mandating a similar order to its workforce.