Qantas has announced that it will require all its employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by March next year. 

As part of its commitment to safety, The Qantas Group will require frontline employees such as cabin crew, pilots and airport staff to complete their COVID-19 vaccinations by November 15th 2021. 

The remainder of employees will be required to be fully vaccinated by March 31, 2022. It’s not likely to be much of a stretch, given that 60% of the airline’s staff are already fully vaccinated. 

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The new vaccination requirement follows a survey of Qantas and Jetstar employees, which sought to gather employee feedback and views on vaccination.

After receiving around 12,000 responses, the results showed that 89% of employees had either already been vaccinated or were planning to be, and only 4% were unable or unwilling to be vaccinated. 

Meanwhile, around three-quarters of respondents felt that there should be a requirement for all employees to be vaccinated.

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In a separate survey of more than 1000 Qantas customers, 92 per cent said they expect Qantas crew to be fully vaccinated.

“Having a fully vaccinated workforce will safeguard our people against the virus but also protect our customers and the communities we fly to,” said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. “One crew member can fly into multiple cities and come into contact with thousands of people in a single day.” 

Given the potential of the virus to spread, he noted that “making sure they are vaccinated” was “the kind of safety leadership people would expect from us.”

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