Emirates has become the 1st airline in the world today to operate a flight with fully vaccinated frontline team that service the customers at every touch point of the travel journey.
Today Morning, the full airport and onboard customer experience for flight EK215, which departed Dubai at 08:30hrs for Los Angeles, was safely supported by check-in, security, Business and First Class lounge and boarding gate employees, as well as engineers, pilots and cabin crew who made the choice to be fully vaccinated.
EK215 to Los Angeles was supported by over 70 fully vaccinated frontline team members. In addition to this, also supporting the flight’s operations were fully vaccinated aircraft appearance, loading and special handling teams from dnata, as well as SkyCargo teams working on the cargo and logistics requirements for EK215.
The Emirates Group rolled out its vaccination drive at pace just over a month ago. Since then, 44% or 26,000, of the group’s frontline aviation workforce have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.
“Our operational workforce are at the aviation frontline, helping people get to where they need to be, and moving essential goods to global communities. Protecting our people with vaccinations is important – for them, for our community, for the smooth running of our operations, and also for our customers as it introduces of an additional layer of protection when they travel with us. 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. We would like to thank the UAE’s leadership for making three types of vaccines available in the country, and for their proactive commitment to championing an extensive National Vaccination Programme.”
said Adel Al Redha, Chief Operating Officer, Emirates.
Nearly 5,000 Cabin and Flight Deck Crew have opted to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Additionally, thousands of more Emirates Group employees in other roles have taken their COVID-19 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.
“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. We are also confident that with more people being vaccinated, combined with strong safety measures in place, we can all look forward to the easing of border entry guidelines for many countries.”
added Adel Al Redha.
The Group’s vaccination centres have been running 12 hours a day, every day of the week to prioritise and provide aviation frontliners with the vaccine. Emirates is also in a partnership with UNICEF to prioritise vaccine deliveries.
Meanwhile, Emirates has also launched IATA’s new COVID-19 travel pass.
What do you think of Emirates’ commitment towards to the health and safety of its passengers and employees? Let us know in the comments section below.