Piedmont Airlines, an American Eagle carrier owned by American Airlines, told pilots they needed to wait to get vaccinated against Covid-19 because of increasing passenger demand for flights.
Airlines argued that huge federal subsidies were necessary ‘to be ready’ for flying to return. Even at the absolute peak of flying days demand has been off at least 30% compared to before the pandemic. Yet despite subsidies, while airlines have pocketed the cash and paid employees as well, they haven’t kept those employees trained and ready to fly. So American’s subsidiary told pilots to delay vaccinations in order to work.
In the memo sent last Wednesday, Piedmont Airlines Chief Pilot John Pursell told the regional carrier’s 500 pilots, “Piedmont will be unable to release any additional pilots for COVID vaccination for the weekend of March 19-21 due to high demand.”
…Pursell told pilots they would need to “attempt to schedule later in the month” so the airline could maintain “operational reliability.” …A source at the airline told CBS News that several pilots were denied the time off to get a COVID vaccine last weekend due to a lack of sufficient reserve pilots to cover their shifts.
The FAA requires pilots to wait 48 hours after getting a shot to return to the cockpit, because of the risk of side effects (which are generally more significant after a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna). Piedmont acknowledged in a separate memo that “the requirement to wait 48-hours before returning to flight duty is causing serious crew coverage concerns.”
They sought to have pilots wait on vaccines to ensure they’d have operators operators for their small ERJ-145 regional jets, and insisted pilots schedule vaccinations “during their off-time and when the required 48-hour post period will not interfere with their flight schedule.”
Piedmont ERJ-145
As part of a larger agreement to resolve a dispute with pilots American agreed to pay its mainline pilots 5.15 hours of flying when they get a vaccine shot. (American’s flying during the pandemic fell below contractual guaranteed levels though pilots continued to get paid thanks to government subsidies, the reduction in flying gives pilots veto power over important international codeshares.)
American had earlier told pilots they had to find vaccine appointments on their days off as well.
With all the money that the taxpayers have given to the airlines here we are telling pilots to delay getting they’re vaccinations, really? Suck it up airlines what happens if a pilot contracts the virus doesn’t know or feel the effects just yet and flies a few legs? Everything they touch in the cockpit is contaminated let alone crew and passengers. Thats the worst case scenario but we are living the worst case scenario now so this is not so far fetched.
Gary, you usually are quite reasonable in your positions, but in this article your position can be inferred to be that this airline (or perhaps any airline) should be required to permit any pilot who wants to be vaccinated at any time to be excused from duty during that time (and during the necessary recovery time). But the issue here is even narrower than that: the airline set aside a single peak travel weekend in the busy spring break period so they could meet their schedule during that limited period of time. You have a problem with this?
The reality is that airlines across the world have been flying throughout the whole pandemic. I’m not aware of any evidence to show that a pilot getting vaccinated today versus two weeks from today makes any detectable difference to the operation of the airline or to the public health in general.
Shame Gary. Companies all over are staggering vaccinations due to the side effects of the second shot. I had mine over a weekend and was down for the count for 24 hours. Most people have mild symptoms for 18 – 48 hours after the second dose. This make sense since I really don’t want pilot flying feeling ill.
You need to change the headline or retract this article, it is highly misleading.
This is cnn level fake news
This is so NOT TRUE. your insider source has lied to you
“NUNYA BUSINESS” this isn’t from an ‘inside source’ it’s straight out of a Piedmont memo, and reported by national news outlets
@Koot
Fox news’ Tucker Carlson defense of slander is the fact that the general tenor of his show should inform viewers that he is not stating actual facts and is instead engaging in exaggeration and non literal commentary. …AKA fake news.