Etihad Airways will only fly with fully vaccinated crew
Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways will only operate flights with vaccinated pilots and cabin crew, the company said on Wednesday.
The airline has made a coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical group Sinopharm available to all employees, as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.
It is not yet clear how many cabin crew and pilots have been vaccinated but the airline said more than 75 per cent of its workforce have received at least a first dose.
CEO Tony Douglas has received the vaccine, which has been distributed for free to the general population of the United Arab Emirates.
Douglas said: “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.”
The UAE has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus infections since the start of the year, with daily cases peaking at a record of almost 4,000 on 3 February.
Vaccine passports next?
The possibility of issuing vaccine passports to enable international travel is being debated across the world.
The UK government has ruled out the plans, after the Greek prime minister had said he would welcome British holidaymakers who could prove immunity.
Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC that vaccine passports would be “discriminatory”.
Zahawi said: “That’s not how we do things. We do them by consent.
“Of course, you have the evidence that you have been vaccinated held by your GP and if other countries require you to show proof of that evidence then that is up to those countries.”
Despite the government’s stance, many senior figures and travel organisations in the UK are calling for their introduction.
Brian Strutton, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, said: “We know the vaccine is our way out of this pandemic, but it may also be out way out of the crisis for our travel sector.
“People are desperate to get travelling again, and if a vaccine passport is what is needed, then we fully support it.
“What would be better still is a globally recognised vaccine passport. Many actors are working on their own version, but we need a global solution to this problem.”