(TAN): Australian national carrier Qantas might “ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft,” said its CEO Alan Joyce in an interview with 9now.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Qantas, which completed its 100 years of existence a few days ago, has undertaken some of the most sweeping actions of any major airline — grounding much of its long-haul fleet and drastically reducing its route network. But with this latest announcement the airline has already started drawing ire of the fliers with many vowing to ‘boycott’ the carrier.
Joyce said, “Whether you need that domestically, we’ll have to see what happens with Covid-19 in the market. But certainly for international visitors coming out and people leaving the country, we think that’s a necessity.”
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He did not clarify if this would apply to those coming from countries where the vaccine may be slower to roll out, such as developing or war-torn nations. Also, if passengers travelling within Australia are required to receive the vaccine, will be decided later, Joyce said.
The CEO also claimed that the requirement of vaccination might be implemented by other airlines as well. “I’m talking to my colleagues in other airlines around the globe, and I think it’s going to be a common thing across the board,” he said. As for the implementation of a broader inoculation requirement, Joyce posited, “What we’re looking at is how you can have a vaccination passport — an electronic version of it — that certifies what the vaccine is, is acceptable in the country you are traveling to?”
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However he admitted that “there’s a lot of logistics, a lot of technology that will be needed to put in place to make this happen.” Qantas does not expect to resume international long-haul operations until July 2021 at this point, said Joyce.
As the Qantas boss made global headlines with his declaration, social media was flooded with remarks from angry fliers, most of whom straight away refused to ‘give in’ to the requirement of Qantas.
