Delta Air Lines will mandate Covid-19 vaccines for new hires, the airline’s CEO said in an interview aired Thursday.
“Any person joining Delta in the future, future employees, we’re going to mandate they be vaccinated before they can sign up with the company,” Ed Bastian told CNN’s ‘Quest Means Business’ host Richard Quest.
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Figures show more than 60 percent of Delta workers already have at least one dose of the vaccine, with Bastian expecting that number to grow to 75 or 80 percent.
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Although current staff will not require to get the jab, it will “probably” stop those who refuse the shot from working on international flights.
But “anyone already here, I don’t think that’s fair to force them to get vaccinated if there’s some kind of philosophical issue they have,” the executive said.
“I’m not going to mandate and force people if they have some specific reason why they don’t want to get vaccinated,” Bastian said. “But I’m going to strongly encourage them and make sure they understand the risk to not getting vaccinated.”
Last month, a hospital in Houston said staff members who refused a vaccine could be fired unless they were exempt for religious or medical reasons.
