American Airlines boss rejects pilots’ bid to dodge COVID vaccine
Airlines President Robert Isom said Friday the company won’t bow to the pilots’ union request to allow for “alternatives” to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees and made it clear he didn’t appreciate the cruise industry claiming its safer than flying.
“The [Biden] executive order doesn’t allow for that,” Isom said in an interview with the Miami Herald, adding that AA’s employee vaccine requireAmerican ment is in compliance with President Joe Biden‘s executive order that says government contractors must require their employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8.
“Our team members need to be vaccinated,” Isom said. “It’s really important for our business, for our company, to get the pandemic under control. We want every one of our team members to be vaccinated and, equally important, we want every one of our team members to have a job and continue to work at American.”
Isom added that American Airlines will be checking proof of vaccination for employees starting Nov. 24. Isom said most employees had been vaccinated but didn’t offer the percentage.
The union representing American Airlines pilots canceled a protest for next Tuesday at Miami International Airport, citing more immediate challenges due to the vaccine mandate.
“Rescheduling this event will enable your union to better focus on the shortterm challenges related to the vaccine mandate,” the union said in an email to members.
Capt. Eric Ferguson, the union’s president, said in a statement to members that they had proposed “alternative means of compliance” to the vaccine mandate, such as weekly testing and allowing those previously infected with COVID-19 to continue to work.
“This would ensure the same level of safety while preventing the destabilization of our industry on the eve of the upcoming holiday season,” he wrote.
In September, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 13,800 American Airlines pilots, called for members to participate in “informational picketing,” beginning at MIA.
The pilots’ union said the company’s management, “repeatedly demonstrated its inability to run a reliable airline” and said the company had reached a record number of reassignments for pilots and consistently failed to provide adequate food and accommodations for pilots.
The union told members that it had not yet rescheduled a date for picketing.
Isom rejected recent claims by cruise-industry executives who say taking a cruise is safer than flying.
“The safest form of transportation out there is absolutely flying. We’ve proven that over and over and over again so that comparison doesn’t play too well,” he said.
“And by the way, we need to make sure the passengers get to cruise lines in a healthy condition,” he pointed out, highlighting that flying tends to go hand in hand with cruises since passengers often travel by air to ports.
Isom acknowledged in the Herald interview that the airline had issues in the beginning of the summer but chalked it up to bad weather and temporary issues with fully staffing after the near shutdown that the company saw due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He highlighted that domestic leisure travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels, which he says is a result of COVID-19 vaccines and airlines doing extensive research and messaging to prove to passengers that flying is safe because of the near constant air flow in planes.
Meanwhile, Isom said that while the airline has had to adapt rapidly due to the pandemic, he has learned more about customer preferences and some changes are here to stay, including no change fees.
“We’ve done a really nice job at identifying what customers want and making sure that we’re appealing to them,” he said of dropping change fees. “We think we’re doing the right thing for our customer base and also ultimately financially for the airline.”