Skift Take
Global airlines said Monday they don't want to take the responsibility mandating Covid-19 vaccines for travelers. Instead, they're more than happy to stand behind national governments as they make jabs a condition for international arrivals.
Global airline CEOs have no plans to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for travelers anytime soon. Instead, the industry will follow country-specific guidelines and require vaccines based on national rules in what many believe will become a de facto mandate for international flyers.
That’s the word at the trade group International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Annual General Meeting in Boston on Monday. The event is an annual who’s-who of airline leaders that brings together typically fierce competitors to a United Nations-like convening for the industry.
“I’m totally supportive of it,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said of an international traveler mandate in an interview at the event. But asked whether the Chicago-based carrier will implement such a requirement, he said the airline “will just follow the government rules.”
United was the first — and one of the few — U.S. carriers to mandate Covid-19 jabs for staff in August. The airline has achieved a more than 99.5 percent vacci
