Canada's vaccine mandate for foreign crews a headache for European airlines

European airlines are walking an increasingly fine line to meet both foreign inoculation and local privacy requirements, as more countries require flight crews to be vaccinated against COVID-19, carriers say. Canada is slated on Jan. 15 to end an exemption that allowed entry of unvaccinated foreign flight crews, joining others that have vaccine mandates for pilots and passengers alike. That's creating a logistical headache for European carriers, who are unable to ask for their employees' vaccination status since they are bound to strict data protection laws in Europe, a spokesperson for the trade group Airlines For Europe (A4E) said. "Carriers will need to find workarounds in order to comply with the Canadian entry requirement," A4E spokesperson Jennifer Janzen said. US carriers like United require their cabin crew to be fully vaccinated, while rivals like American Airlines and Southwest have delayed the effective date of vaccine mandates until 2022 for employees. Airlines, which have suffered steep losses due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and bans, are blaming a patchwork of shifting rules for increased red-tape and depressed demand for international travel. read more Airlines expect to see more inoculation mandates for crew as the fast-spreading Omicron variant forces governments to tighten border restrictions. "We now see that more and more countries are mandating or considering immunization of flight crews," said KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The carrier identified intercontinental flights to about 10 destinations where crew are currently not exempt from vaccine requirements. As more countries demand proof of inoculation from everyone on planes, international flights will no longer be practical without vaccinated crews, said a spokesperson for Lufthansa which can't obligate its personnel to be vaccinated against COVID-19.<br/>