United Airlines’ employees who are granted exemptions to a company vaccinate mandate for religious reasons will be put on temporary unpaid leave starting next month, the airline told staff Wednesday, citing the recent rise in Covid cases. The airline last month said its 67,000-person US workforce must be vaccinated against Covid-19 this fall, but said it would consider exemptions for religious and personal beliefs as well as medical reasons. Airlines’ approaches to encourage vaccination rates of their staff have varied. United said Wednesday if an employee’s request for a religious exemption is denied, they must be vaccinated within five weeks of the denial notice and get the first shot by Sept. 27, or they will be terminated. Pilots, flight attendants, gate agents and airport customer service agents who interact with customers who are granted those exemptions can return to work “once the pandemic meaningfully recedes,” United said, without specifying the timeframe.<br/>
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The first flight ferrying 100 passengers from Germany travelling under a quarantine-free scheme has landed at Changi Airport. SQ325, operated by Singapore Airlines (SIA), touched down at 5.36pm on Wednesday. It departed Frankfurt at about 10pm local time on Tuesday, or 4am on Wednesday, Singapore time. The plane was expected to land at Terminal 3 at 4.25pm on Wednesday, but arrived later due to a reroute to avoid Afghan airspace. SQ325's landing marks the start of Singapore's Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme, which is open to Brunei and Germany. Vaccinated travellers under the scheme will take up to four Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests in lieu of quarantine, and have to follow other conditions like taking designated VTL flights to Singapore. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said it has issued passes to travel under the VTL scheme to 1,412 travellers from Germany as at 11.59pm on Tuesday - 621 passes were issued to short-term visitors and the remaining 791 passes were issued to long-term pass holders.<br/>