Southwest Airlines to Require Covid-19 Vaccines for Employees

The Biden administration in an executive order last month said that employees of federal contractors will be subject to strict vaccination requirements. Unlike other large employers—whose workers will have the option of undergoing regular testing instead of being vaccinated under planned government rules—employees of government contractors will be required to get vaccinated against Covid-19, unless they have religious or medical exemptions.

“Southwest Airlines is a federal contractor and we have no viable choice but to comply with the U.S. government mandate for employees to be vaccinated,” Chief Executive Gary Kelly told employees Monday in a video message.

Some Southwest employees, including the union that represents its pilots, have opposed vaccine mandates.

Mr. Kelly said in the same message that he respected different views and had hoped to persuade employees rather than impose a mandate but asked for cooperation in complying with the federal rules.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Monday that it was still reviewing the administration’s executive order but thinks its approach—requiring weekly testing for the unvaccinated and imposing a $200 monthly healthcare surcharge starting in November—is working. About 84% of the airline’s employees are vaccinated, Delta said.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. had already laid out a strict policy in August ahead of the federal mandate, requiring that all employees be vaccinated or face termination. Now that the airline’s deadline has arrived, most of its 67,000 U.S. employees have complied, the airline has said.

Write to Alison Sider at [email protected]