Delta Air Lines CEO says coronavirus vaccine mandate is working

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Delta Air Lines CEO says coronavirus vaccine mandate is working

Delta Air Lines is the only U.S. carrier to hold off on enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees and CEO Ed Bastian reported that it s been an effective tactic to reduce vaccination rates and compliance.

The Delta head told Claman Countdown that the company has reached a more than 90% vaccination rate and expects it to grow another 5% within the next month without a mandate in place.

The reason the mandate was put in by President was because he wanted to make sure companies had a plan for getting their employees vaccinated, he said. A month before the President announced the mandate, we had already announced our plan to have all of our people vaccinated. And the good news is that the plan is working. Bastian acknowledges that there will need to be religious and medical accommodations for those who wish to remain unvaccinated while avoiding having to threaten employment status.

By the time we re done, we will be pretty close to fully vaccinated as a company without going through all the divisiveness of a mandate, he said. We reproving that you can work collaboratively with your people, trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs. Despite a very choppy coronavirus recovery for the air travel industry, Bastian celebrated Delta s low cancellation rate and overall operational balance. The CEO shared that the company spewed 116 perfect days this year without cancellations, which is right on par with pre-pandemic 2019 numbers.

Delta has done a great job all year long with making sure that we re managing supply and demand in equilibrium, he said. Our people are doing a great job. I can t give enough thanks to the Delta team in providing a great product for our customers and it's one of the reasons we were profitable this quarter.