Scott Kirby, the CE of United Airlines, reached a breaking point while vacationing in Croatia this summer: After receiving word that a 57-year-old United pilot had died after contracting the coronavirus, he felt it was time to require all employees to get vaccinated. He paced for about half an hour and then called two of his top executives. “We concluded enough is enough,” Kirby said Thursday. “People are dying, and we can do something to stop that with United Airlines.” The company announced its vaccine mandate days later, kicking off a two-month process that ended last Monday. Kirby’s team had guessed that no more than 70% of the airline’s workers were already vaccinated, and the requirement helped convince most of the rest: Nearly all of United’s 67,000 US employees have been vaccinated, in one of the largest and most successful corporate efforts of the kind during the pandemic. The key to United’s success, even in states where vaccination rates are at or below the national average, like Texas and Florida, was a gradual effort that started with providing incentives and getting buy-in from employee groups, especially unions, which represent a majority of its workers. About 2,000 employees have applied for medical or religious exemptions, though their fate remains unclear as United fights a lawsuit over its plan to place them on temporary leave. A few hundred more failed to comply with the mandate and could be fired in coming weeks. When United announced its mandate in early August, it was part of a lonely group of large employers willing to broadly require vaccination. Story has more.<br/>
star
The boss of United Airlines has said that firing staff who refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine is "just the right thing to do". Around 300 of the airline's 67,000 US based staff are yet to comply with the strict policy, after an initial deadline of 27 September. Vaccine hesitancy has been a hugely divisive issue in the US but President Biden recently made it easier for big companies to take a tougher line. CEO Scott Kirby says United's strict policy is "about saving lives". He adds that "when I retire someday, hopefully long in the future, I will look back at this and it will be one of the proudest moments of my career that we've made the tough decision, but the right decision to require vaccines." More than 250 staff have complied with United's policy since last week's deadline. A further 2,000 employees have requested an exemption on medical or religious grounds. They haven't all been granted, but final numbers won't be clear until legal processes are resolved. Any dismissal process could take weeks or months as the company says it would follow agreements with trade unions.<br/>
Lufthansa is adding more than 80 flights from Frankfurt and over 50 departures from Munich this fall as the German airline sees rising demand for leisure destinations. The carrier will offer extra flights to Spain’s Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Malaga, and other European destinations during the country’s fall vacation period, it said in a statement on Sunday. Spain is in particularly high demand, it added. Lufthansa sees demand for business travel, one of the big question marks for the aviation industry coming out of the pandemic, picking up as well. As a result, the company will continue to expand its domestic flights on routes that are particularly important for business travelers, it said. Over the last few weeks, Lufthansa expanded its services for October by 45% compared to July on routes such as Frankfurt to Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, and from Munich to Berlin, Hamburg and Dusseldorf. Germany agreed to bail out Lufthansa at the start of the coronavirus pandemic after travel bans forced the grounding of global fleets. The company also owns Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, and the low-cost carrier Eurowings. Separately, Lufthansa board member Detlef Kayser said the airline favors compulsory Covid-19 vaccinations for flight personnel in Germany. “As an airline that operates worldwide, we advocate mandatory vaccination for our crews and also need a way to collect vaccination data,” he told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. <br/>
Lufthansa said on Sunday it has agreed to lease four new Airbus A350-900 long-haul passenger jets, taking on newer planes left without homes as airlines restructure their balance sheets amid the coronavirus crisis. Airplanes are currently available at low lease rates as carriers review their portfolios, industry sources say. CE Carsten Spohr announced the move by the German flag carrier on the sidelines of an airlines conference dominated by debate over emissions and heavy industry losses due to the pandemic. "Fleet modernization, in my view, is one pillar to cope with the sustainability challenges," Spohr said. The aircraft were originally earmarked for Philippine Airlines, which has been restructuring its fleet, and will be available early next year, a person familiar with the deal said. Their arrival will speed up the replacement of less fuel-efficient Airbus A340-600 and Boeing 747-400 jets, Lufthansa said, with 30% fewer emissions per plane. Lufthansa said the four new planes will take its A350 fleet to 21 aircraft. Spohr also said he was concerned that a slow reopening of borders in China amid strict coronavirus travel restrictions was hurting the German air carrier's recovery.<br/>
India's finance ministry said on Friday reports suggesting the government has picked a winning bid for the debt-laden state-run airline Air India were incorrect. Earlier on Friday, Bloomberg reported that a panel of ministers accepted a proposal from officials recommending salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Sons ahead of an offer from Ajay Singh, promoter of India's airline operator Spicejet. "Media reports indicating approval of financial bids by Government of India in the AI disinvestment case are incorrect," the ministry said in a tweet. "Media will be informed of the Government decision as and when it is taken." Air India and Tata Sons declined to comment. Earlier this month the finance ministry said it had received bids for the airline, but did not name the bidders. A possible sale would come at a time the airline industry is trying to recover from the slump in travel caused by restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic.<br/>
The bus stops in front of the city hall in Frankfurt, the final destination after an eight-day tour through Germany. Six tourists from Singapore alight and once on the open square, most of them remove their masks. In Germany, masks are currently not compulsory in the open air, and there is no restriction on the size of a group, as long as social distancing - of 1.5m - is maintained. Novita Lam, a 27-year-old bank employee and Instagrammer from Singapore, nevertheless professes to feel safe. "In Germany, there are fewer people crowding the streets and squares than in Singapore," she said. She arrived in Germany just over a week ago with the first tour group from Singapore via the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. Her group was the first from Asia since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the last day of her trip, she is due to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, one of four she will have to undergo as part of the VTL. The remaining three tests will be conducted in Singapore. Since Sept 8, fully vaccinated passengers have been able to travel between Singapore and Germany on designated VTL flights operated by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and German carrier Lufthansa. They must have been in Germany or Singapore for the previous 21 days prior to departure. SIA offers a VTL flight every day; Lufthansa on Thursdays and Saturdays. More than 20 of the VTL flights have since ferried over 1,000 passengers between Singapore and Germany. Lufthansa has seen demand for the route quadrupling since the introduction of the VTL to Singapore. <br/>
Air New Zealand said Sunday it will require passengers on its international flights to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in what is one of the world's strictest policies for travellers. "Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is the new reality of international travel – many of the destinations Kiwis want to visit are already closed to unvaccinated visitors," Air New Zealand's CEO Greg Foran said. New Zealand plans to reopen its international borders, which have been closed since March 2020 to anyone who is not a New Zealand citizen, early next year. Air New Zealand will implement the vaccination policy from Feb. 1, the airline said. "As with anything, there will be some that disagree," Foran said. "However, we know this is the right thing to do to protect our people, our customers and the wider New Zealand community."<br/>