The International Air Transport Association and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations have urged governments to exempt crews from Covid-19 testing or other restrictions now applied to air travelers. The measures employed by some states contravene the recommended ICAO global guidelines, noted Gilberto Lopez Meyer, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Safety and Flight Operations. “Airlines are willing to invest in safety that delivers meaningful outcomes, but that is not the case with unilateral, uncoordinated testing requirements,” he said. In addition to the intrusion and physical discomfort of daily Covid-19 testing, there are significant cost considerations. One global airline has estimated the cost of complying with such requirements for a single daily flight would amount to an additional $950,000 per year, the trade bodies said in a joint statement on Monday.
IATA also believes authorities should grant airline pilots and cabin crew priority for getting the Covid-19 vaccine. Airlines play a critical role in the transport of the vaccines through the use of their extensive global networks and expertise in the shipment of time-sensitive and temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals. According to estimates by IATA, a single dose of the jab to 7.8 billion people worldwide would require the capacity of some 8,000 Boeing 747 freighters for the airlift.
“This will be the largest and most complex logistical exercise ever,” IATA director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac noted at the trade body’s annual general meeting on November 25. “The world is counting on us. And we will not disappoint.”
An early inoculation of crew against the coronavirus would keep pilots and other airline staff healthy and therefore operational.
The IATA meeting endorsed a resolution that asks governments to ensure that aviation staff—and international travelers—are prioritized for Covid-19 vaccination once safe and effective treatments become available and health care workers and vulnerable groups have been protected. “Further to this, the World Health Organization has identified transportation workers, including aircrew and other aviation workers, as one of the priority categories for vaccination,” an IATA spokesperson told AIN, asserting that “any crew or passenger who has been vaccinated should not have to undergo tests or quarantine.”
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also has included staff who support air transportation for cargo and passengers in a list of essential critical infrastructure workers.
Asked whether the association had already lobbied countries’ health authorities to prioritize airline workers for early vaccine distribution and whether some governments are open to the idea, the spokesperson said IATA is “encouraging governments to follow the WHO guidance.”
The European Cockpit Association, which represents the interests of more than 40,000 pilots from the national pilot associations in 33 European states, has not yet discussed the issue internally, a spokeswoman for the Brussels-based trade body told AIN.
Meanwhile, Abu-Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has started a Covid-19 inoculation program for pilots, cabin crew, and other airline staff in cooperation with the emirate’s Department of Health after the UAE government in September granted emergency approval for China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to be made available to frontline workers. The vaccination is voluntary, and in a letter to staff, management stressed that an employee’s decision to receive or not receive the vaccine is “in no way linked” to their employment at Etihad.
IATA said it does not take a position on whether vaccines should be mandatory for flight crew, maintaining that “is a matter for states to decide.” Who should pay for the vaccine is also a matter for individual states, according to the spokesperson, “but we welcome the approach of governments who recognize the importance of aviation in distributing vaccines and in making vaccination accessible and who are therefore providing vaccines free of charge.”