Thomas Pallini/Business Insider
- Delta Air Lines hasn’t yet required vaccines for employees despite President Biden’s mandate for federal contractors.
- American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines now require employees to be vaccinated.
- Delta says its existing strategy of encouraging vaccines is helping to increase the vaccination rates.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Delta Air Lines is falling behind its industry rivals by not implementing an employee vaccine mandate, especially after surging ahead of competitors in health safety earlier in the pandemic.
Out of the four largest US carriers – American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Delta – Delta is now the only carrier to not mandate vaccinations for all employees.
American and Southwest just recently announced their employee vaccine policies, citing government contracts that require compliance with President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate for contractors of the federal government.
“Southwest Airlines must join our industry peers in complying with the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccination directive,” Gary Kelly, Southwest’s CEO, said in a statement announcing the requirement.
Delta has similar government contracts as it routinely flies government cargo and military troops, in addition to being a member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet that was most recently activated during the Afghanistan evacuee airlift, and falls under the executive order’s purview.
The Atlanta-based airline in August rolled out a policy that requires vaccines or weekly testing. But in contrast to similar policies at rival airlines, employees that aren’t vaccinated have to endure measures such as mask-wearing at all times while at work and a $200 increase to their insurance premiums.
Delta’s strategy has worked to increase its vaccination rate by nearly 10 percentage points, according to the airline.
“Delta’s approach to encourage a high rate of employee vaccinations continues to work, with an 84% workforce vaccination rate and climbing daily,” an airline spokesperson told Insider.
But the airline’s reluctance to transition to a full mandate is stumping industry watchers.
“Delta now has the cover of a US government mandate, as a federal contractor, to go to its employees and pretty much say something similar to what Southwest said,” Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Insider. “What I don’t understand is: why Delta is hesitating at all in the wake of the government’s announcement.”
United Airlines was the first US carrier to implement a vaccine mandate and did so before the government mandate. The result has been a reduction in the number of unvaccinated employees to a mere 232, dropping from 593 in under a week after United said it would fire those that don’t comply. According to the airline, 99.5% of its US workforce is now vaccinated.
Delta’s reluctance to follow suit contrasts its stellar performance during the pandemic regarding health safety. The carrier was among the first to implement a back-to-front boarding procedure that reduced passenger interaction and the last to end the COVID-era practice of blocking middle seats, while also investing to overhaul cleaning procedures in its airports and airplanes.
“Delta isn’t being passive. If we had the conversation 24 hours ago I’d say Delta is doing everything and American is doing nothing,” Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, told Insider. “It’s impossible to say one is a lagger and one is a leader.”
Non-Delta affiliated pilot unions have raised concerns about the impact of Biden’s mandate. Pilots from Southwest and American have warned that staff shortages from vaccine requirements could impact holiday travel. In a letter viewed by Politico and The Dallas Morning News, American’s pilot union, the Allied Pilots Association, said a mandate would “either offer unpaid leaves of absence or, worse, implement mass terminations of unvaccinated pilots.”
The Southwest Airline Pilot Association echoed American, warning of operational issues from vaccinated employees and called for “alternate means of compliance” and “an operationally feasible implementation period.” Both unions also cited concerns about vaccine side effects, like blood clots or heart issues, potentially preventing pilots from maintaining their medical clearance.
But Biden’s mandate took the decision out of the airlines’ hands.
“Once the federal mandate came out for federal contractors … Delta had the perfect justification to be able to go to employees and say, ‘our hands are tied,'” Harteveldt said.
Delta has until December 8 to comply with Biden’s vaccine mandate.
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