Airlines — minus Charlotte’s dominant carrier — are cracking down on vaccines

But Charlotte’s dominant carrier, American Airlines, hasn’t changed its policy yet.

What’s happening: Earlier this month, United became the first major airline to implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all of its 67,000 employees, as Axios reported. Those employees risk being terminated if they don’t get the jab by Oct. 25.

And this week, Delta announced it’ll impose a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health care plan.

• This makes Delta the first carrier to impose a monetary penalty on employees who choose not to get the vaccine, per Bloomberg.

Why it matters: The moves by both these companies aim to increase vaccination rates among their employees.

• The pandemic has crushed the travel industry, and the Delta variant has further sapped demand for air travel.
• It’s therefore in airlines’ best financial interest to help bolster vaccination rates.

More airlines could start adding vaccine mandates following their competitors’ leads, as Axios’ Joann Muller reported.

United CEO Scott Kirby told Muller that he’s tired of seeing his employees die. United’s had dozens of employees die from COVID-19 — all of them unvaccinated, Kirby said.

“For me, the fact that people are 300 times more likely to die if they’re unvaccinated is all I need to know,” Kirby told Muller. “It’s about saving lives.”

The local angle: American Airlines operates 90% of the daily flights at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Here, the carrier employs about 12,000 people, spokesperson Andrew Trull said. But the company has not yet made any changes to its employee vaccine policy, Trull told Axios.

“We are strongly encouraging our team members to get vaccinated, and we are offering an incentive for those who do,” he added.

• Everyone who gets a shot gets an additional day off in 2022 and $50 through American’s employee recognition platform.
• American won’t say how many of its employees are vaccinated.

These recent decisions by airlines to crack down on vaccines are, of course, financial ones, says Peter Schwarz, an economist at UNC Charlotte’s Belk College.

“The big financial ramification is the question of the tradeoff between greater passenger comfort — more people flying on Delta — versus the possible loss of employees at a time when they already seem to be short staffed,” Schwarz tells Axios.

Airlines could also consider vaccine mandates for passengers ultimately, he adds. Unlike other venues that’ve implemented vaccine mandates recently (like outdoor stadiums and concert amphitheaters), airplanes are enclosed spaces, designed to fit as many people in as possible.

• “You would think (mandates are) something they would need to look at,” he says.

Public officials here have urged private companies to implement their own vaccine mandates. Speaking at Pizzeria Mercato, a Carrboro pizza joint that requires customers to be vaccinated, Gov. Roy Cooper said last week that when businesses and employers require vaccines, they’re protecting the community.

“Policies like these will get more shots in arms that in turn will boost our economy and get us more quickly to the end of the pandemic,” he said.