Emirates operates its first flight with a fully vaccinated crew
The carrier rolled out its vaccination drive over a month ago
Dubai: Emirates airline on Sunday said it operated its first flight serviced by fully vaccinated frontline teams across all customer touchpoints.
Flight EK215, which departed this morning from Dubai for Los Angeles, was supported by check-in, security, business and first class lounge and boarding gate employees, as well as engineers, pilots and cabin crew who made the choice to be fully vaccinated, said the airline in a statement.
The carrier rolled out its vaccination drive at pace just over a month ago, and since then, close to 26,000, or 44 per cent, of the company’s UAE frontline aviation workforce have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.
“Our operational workforce is 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, Emirates Airline.
“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,” he added.
Nearly 5,000 cabin and flight deck crew have opted to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. In addition, thousands more Emirates Group 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 UAE.
“We are also 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," said Al Redha.
Etihad was first
Earlier this month, Etihad became the first airline in the world to have all its operating pilots and cabin crew vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
“We proactively made the vaccine available to all our employees to not only help combat the effects of COVID-19 but to make travellers feel confident and reassured the next time they fly with us,” said Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group.