DUBAI-BASED Emirates on January 21 joined the list of world airlines to operate a flight with fully vaccinated frontline teams servicing customers at every touchpoint of the journey.
Flight EK215 departed Dubai for Los Angeles at 8.30am on that day supported by over 70 fully vaccinated frontline operation team members – at check-in, security, business and first class lounge and boarding gate, as well as engineers, pilots and cabin crew.
Also vaccinated were the cargo and logistics team at SkyCargo, and the loading and special handling team working on EK215.
Emirates Group rolled out its vaccination programme last month for its UAE-based workforce in coordination with the Dubai Health Authority and the Ministry of Health and Prevention. Since then about 26,000, or 44% ,of the group’s frontline aviation workforce have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.
“We’ve seen a very positive response with high demand and take-up of the Covid-19 vaccine from our colleagues at the operational frontline, and there’s continued momentum in the rate of vaccinations across the business,” stated Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer at Emirates Airline.
The airline said to date, to 26,000 of Emirates Group’s frontline aviation workforce already vaccinated with two doses, among them 5,000 cabin and flight deck crew have opted to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
In addition, thousands of employees in other roles within the airline group have taken the vaccine through the company’s clinics and vaccination centres, while others have opted to take their vaccine at one of the many vaccination centres across the UAE.
Al Redha added: “At the outset of the pandemic Emirates implemented robust safety measures to protect and prioritise the safety of our customers and employees at all stages of the travel journey, and with the rapid progress of our own vaccination programme and high rates of take-up more of our flights will soon be operating with fully vaccinated frontline employees.”
He is confident that with more people being vaccinated, combined with safety measures, “we can all look forward to the easing of border entry guidelines for many countries.”
The UAE currently has one of the world’s highest rate of vaccinations for its citizens and residents as it fights to curb the spread of Covid, with the administration of over 5.4 million doses of the vaccine. According to Our World In Data, a research website based at Oxford University, the country’s distribution rate stands at 55.27 doses per 100 people, ranking it the second highest in the world.
• All images credit (featured image is crew on board flight EK215): Emirates Airlines
