Indian carriers initiate Covid-19 vaccine programmes for their employees

It has been the long-standing demand of the aviation sector in India to be treated as a frontline worker, and be vaccinated against Covid-19 along with other front-line workers. After all, these are the people who have been getting out there every day to operate flights with significant public interaction: be it cabin crew, cockpit crew, check-in or gate agents, security teams and so on. However, the government did not take it seriously till recently when they opened up vaccination for everyone who is 18+ years of age. In other countries, on the other hand, airlines have operated fully-vaccinated flights, for instance, in Qatar and Emirates.

Air India pilots had to tell the airline that they planned to stop work before it got the attention of their management and Air India announced vaccination for all crew. Here are all the airlines who are working on vaccinating their crew at the moment.


Air India

Air India had committed to vaccinating all their employees by May 31. They had already conducted vaccination camps for 45+ employees pre-May 1 in some places. In Mumbai, this drive is being carried out in association with CritiCare Hospitals.

a sign on a wall


Air Asia India

As per a report in Bangalore Mirror, Air Asia India had already conducted 3 vaccination drives by May 6, 2021, for their employees who were 45+, in Bangalore, Gurugram and Delhi, along with their family members. There is no information available on their programme to vaccinate 18-44 years old employees yet.


IndiGo

IndiGo has already commenced vaccination drives across 40 stations in its network and IndiGo Support Centre at Gurgaon. There are drives planned for some additional stations later this month. This is however also dependent on vaccine supplies and how quickly these will be made available by the Government and private hospitals. As per IndiGo, all employees in Pune and Chandigarh had received their first shot.

Here is IndiGo CSRO Sanjay Kumar and other employees at IndiGo getting vaccinated.

a man and woman in a room with a mask and face shield

a woman wearing a mask and gloves

a man in a white coat and a mask getting a shot of a woman


Vistara

Vistara launched its drive to vaccinate their employees recently, and at a drive organised at its corporate headquarters in Gurugram, they provided for vaccines not just for their own employees, but for those of other Tata companies and Singapore Airlines, both the parents, (for those who are based in Delhi/NCR).

a woman getting a vaccine shot

a man holding up two signs


SpiceJet

SpiceJet has said it will start a company-sponsored vaccination drive for all its employees from May 17, 2021, which will cover all the 15,000 employees of the airline across the stations. The drive is expected to commence from the SpiceJet headquarters in Delhi NCR.


Go First

Go First has tied up with various hospitals in all the cities where it operates to vaccinate its ~4500 employees, and targets to vaccinate most of its employees by the end of May 2021. The airline will absorb the cost of vaccination for both the shots for the employees.


All the airlines are first focused on getting shots to their frontline employees which include their cabin and cockpit crews. Everyone will be granted a couple of days off as per mandatory guideline from the DGCA to recover. StarAir and Trujet have not informed yet about their plans to get their employees vaccinated.


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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