Cathay Pacific could make Covid-19 vaccination a prerequisite for pilots and cabin crew to keep their jobs soon, and the airline warned organizing flying schedules would be harder to manage with non-inoculated staff.
The carrier said 80 percent of its 2,600 pilots had booked or received a vaccination, by far the highest among its workforce, but only 40 percent of about 8,750 cabin crew members – as of May 13 – had received or made a booking.
“Based on our operational modeling it is clear that it won’t be long before we are unable to sustainably roster unvaccinated crew,” Chris Kempis, director of flight operations, said in a memo on Thursday. “As such, it looks increasingly likely that in the future being vaccinated will be an essential requirement of the job for any Hong Kong-based aircrew.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will need to be one of the prerequisites to being employed as a pilot in international operations.”
The airline has internally disclosed that 3,500 cabin crew started the vaccination process, and 2,000 are considered fully vaccinated.