Emirates, Singapore Airlines now operating flights with fully vaccinated crews

The Dubai-based airline Emirates has operated its first flight with a fully vaccinated frontline team servicing customers at every touchpoint of the travel journey, reports Breaking Travel News.

The flight departed Dubai for Los Angeles, having been safely supported by check-in, security, business and first-class lounge and boarding gate employees, as well as engineers, pilots and cabin crew who had all made the choice to be fully vaccinated.

Also supporting the operation were fully vaccinated aircraft appearance, loading and special handling teams, as well as Emirates SkyCargo teams working on the cargo and logistics requirements for the flight.

In short, every single person who comes into contact with aircraft and passengers has been vaccinated.

The Emirates Group rolled out its vaccination drive just over a month ago, and since then, close to 26,000, or 44% of the UAE-based frontline aviation workforce have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.

Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer of Emirates said: “Our operational workforce is at the aviation frontline, helping people get to where they need to be, and moving essential goods to global communities.

“Protecting our people with vaccinations is important for the smooth running of our operations, and also for our customers as it introduces an additional layer of protection when they travel with us.”

Nearly 5,000 cabin and flight deck crew have opted to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad and Singapore Airlines have both also seen early successes in their vaccination efforts.

Within the SIA Group, all three passenger airlines are among the first carriers in the world to operate flights with a full complement of vaccinated pilots and cabin crew.

The first fully immunised services onboard Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot took to the air on Feb 12.

The Singapore government has prioritised the aviation sector in the country’s vaccination schedule.

Operating crew within the SIA Group have responded very positively, reports Reuters, with more than 90% of cabin crew and pilots signing up for the vaccine to date.

Goh Choon Phong, chief executive of Singapore Airlines, said: “We are very encouraged by the strong take-up rate for the vaccine from our colleagues.

“Vaccinations will be key to the reopening of borders and to enhancing travel confidence, in tandem with robust testing regimes and the wide-ranging safe management measures that are in place on the ground and in the air.

“They offer greater protection for our people and provide an added layer of assurance to our customers.”