Flight attendees hand out refreshments on a full Delta Airlines flight traveling from Ronald Regan Domestic Airport to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Friday, May 21, 2021.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Wednesday notified his employees that they will face monthly increases of $ 200 in their health insurance premiums starting Nov. 1 if they are not vaccinated against Covid-19, citing high costs to cover hospitalized employees with the virus.
Unvaccinated employees will face other restrictions, such as immediate effective internal masking and weekly testing of Covid-19 starting Sept. 12, the Atlanta airline said in announcing new Covid policies for employees .
The measures are the latest attempt by a US corporation to raise vaccination rates against Covid. Delta failed to fulfill an absolute mandate like rival United Airlines established earlier this month. The airline, which insures its employees on its own, stands out in its plans to increase premiums for unvaccinated workers to cover the higher costs of insuring employees who receive Covid.
“The average stay at COVID-19 hospital has cost Delta $ 40,000 per person,” Bastian said in a note from employees. “This surcharge will be necessary to deal with the financial risk that the decision not to vaccinate is creating for our company. In recent weeks, since the rise of variant B.1.617.2, all Delta employees who have were hospitalized with COVID were not fully vaccinated. “
Delta has self-insurance and United Healthcare manages the airline’s health insurance plans. The change of approach was Delta’s initiative.
Delta also said that as of Sept. 30, “in compliance with state and local laws, COVID wage protection will only be provided to fully vaccinated people who suffer from an advanced infection.” Unvaccinated employees who hire Covid, without exemptions, will be required to use the subsequent sick days.
CEO Bastian said about 75% of Delta’s approximately 75,000 employees are already vaccinated and that “Delta’s aggressiveness” [delta] The variant means that we have to vaccinate many more of our people and approximately 100% possible. “
Delta earlier this year began demanding the vaccination of new employees against Covid.
On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer vaccine, though a Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said the plan had been in place for weeks and the timing was coincidental.
Earlier this month, Alaska Airlines told employees it was considering requiring employees to be vaccinated against Covid, but that it would only do so after one of the vaccines received full approval. Frontier Airlines said this month that employees should be vaccinated or tested regularly to detect Covid.
Delta, which has fewer union employees than major U.S. airlines, said it informed the Airline Pilots Association, the union of its aviators, of the changes.
Airlines have been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic and the rise in the Covid Delta variant is already slowing the recent recovery in bookings, according to airlines such as Southwest, American Airlines and Spirit.