By Alexander Cornwell
Emirates airline on Monday started offering employees vaccinations against the Covid-19 disease with priority given to front-line workers such as cabin crew and pilots.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and another developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) are being made available to all employees in the United Arab Emirates, parent company Emirates Group said.
Both vaccines are already available to the general public in the United Arab Emirates with priority given to certain groups.
Emirates Group, which employs about 80 000 staff globally, also counts airport and travel services provider data among its assets, along with the state carrier.
Singapore on Monday urged workers at its national airline, Singapore Airlines (SIA), to help make it the world's first carrier with all staff vaccinated against Covid-19.
The travel industry has been among the worst hit by the coronavirus crisis and a recent resurgence in global infections has driven down demand in some countries re-entering the lockdown.
Emirates President Tim Clark told Reuters on January 13 he was confident the airlines entire fleet of 275 widebody jets would be in use by the end of the year despite the rise in global cases.
Earlier this month, Emirates offered customers even greater assurance and peace of mind by offering multi-risk travel cover on top of its current Covid-19 cover.
Provided by Emirates at no additional cost to its customers, and provided by AIG Travel, this cover is the first of its kind in the airline and travel insurance industry. It is designed to provide all Emirates passengers a truly unique offer for stress-free and hassle-free travel.
This new multi-risk travel insurance and Covid-19 cover applies to all Emirates tickets purchased from 1 December, 2020, and extends to Emirates codeshare flights operated by partner airlines, as long as the ticket number starts with 176.
HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive said: “Emirates was the first airline to offer complimentary global Covid-19 cover for travelers back in July, and the response from our customers has been tremendously encouraging. We’ve not rested on our laurels and instead continued to look at how we can offer our customers an even better proposition.