Emirates Airlines to Staff: Get Vaccinated or Pay for Your Own COVID Tests

Early stage conversations about the vaccination being a requirement for international travel were almost immediately batted down, forcing individual airlines to establish their own policies . In January, Singapore Airlines announced its intentions to become the first fully inoculated airline — offering vaccines to employees both on the ground and in the air — with the support of its government. In similar fashion, Emirates Airlines began offering free vaccines to employees, with pilots and cabin crew given priority. Now, though, according to a new Skift report, Emirates is taking a harder position on the matter, telling employees — per an email obtained by Reuters — that they will need to get the vaccine or incur the cost of pre-flight COVID tests themselves, effective March 15.

“Certain countries may in the future differentiate entry criteria between those who have taken the vaccine and those who did not,” the statement to employees said. “Keeping this in mind, having a vaccinated workforce has become essential not just from a health and safety angle but from an operational one too.”

The email goes on to say that those who are already scheduled to receive their second vaccine dose, have registered for their initial dose, have been recently infected or are currently infected and those who have a valid medical reason for not receiving the vaccine, are exempt. As it stands now, only about 60% of Emirates employees appear to have received the vaccine.

According to Skift, COVID tests in Dubai typically go for around 150 dirhams, or $40, at both private and public clinics and must be valid for seven days leading up to departure. Worth noting, too, is that, to date, the United Arab Emirates has one of the world’s highest level of vaccinations administered to population, second only to Israel.

It is unclear at this time how Emirates employees are receiving this news but, despite all the positive new developments pertaining to vaccination, it seems as if every attempt to make the vaccine a requirement for, really, anything has been met with at least some resistance to this point. Regardless, it’s likely that Emirates won’t be the last airline to put a similar policy in place where employees are involved.