Alaska Airlines latest airline to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its employees

Alaska Airlines is now requiring its employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, making it the latest in a growing list of airlines and other companies to implement such a mandate.

In a statement to The Hill, the company confirmed that it is updating its policies to comply with a federal mandate requiring employees of federal contractors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Since our company does significant work for the federal government, we have determined that Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and McGee employees – all part of Alaska Air Group – do fall under this federal vaccine mandate, along with other major U.S. airlines,” the company said. 

“This means all of our employees, including certain contractors and vendors, will be required to be fully vaccinated, or be approved for a reasonable accommodation such as medical conditions or religious beliefs that prevent them from being vaccinated,” it continued.

There isn’t a hard deadline on when employees will have to be vaccinated under the mandate, though the company said it could come as soon as Dec. 8. 

News of the mandate was first reported by The Seattle Times, citing an email sent to employees.

Andrea Schneider, Alaska Airlines’ senior vice president for people, wrote in a memo that employees who have an exemption may be subject to protocols like “weekly testing, continued masking and social distancing, modified work schedules or locations, delayed training class start dates, the inability to attend in-person events or unpaid leaves of absence.”

In early September, Alaska announced that it would incentivize employees to be vaccinated with $200 bonuses. Alaska told The Hill that the deadline for the incentive will be extended from Oct. 15 to Dec. 1.

United Airlines was the first airline to announce that it was mandating vaccines in August. On Tuesday, the company announced that it has begun laying off roughly 600 employees who refused to comply with the mandate.