Increasing numbers of staff testing positive for Covid-19 are making the situation worse for the U.S. airline industry. Some airlines, like United, are reducing their schedules in the wake of missed flights and worker shortages.
The scheduling pivot and the surge of canceled and sick workers were acknowledged by United CEO Scott Kirby in a letter posted on LinkedIn Tuesday. Kirby claimed that as many as a third of the company's Newark, New Jersey workforce called out sick in a single day, after testing positive for Covid-19. About 4% of United's total workforce is made up of those 3,000 workers.
The CEO hopes the new efforts to scale back United's schedule will allow the company to shore up what is currently available. United is not the only one. Alaska Airlines plans to cut 10% of its flights in January, after announcing that it would cancel 1,280 flights in the first half of the month. According to The New York Times, over the past weekend, around 5,000 flights were canceled across U.S. airlines.
It is not all bad news. Kirby credited the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for preventing any of its workers from dying or being hospitalized from the virus so far. The majority of United's workforce is currently vaccine free, though about 2,000 employees have applied for medical or religious exemptions.
The hospitalization rate among our employees has been 100x lower than the general population in the U.S. since our vaccine policy went into effect. More than one United employee on average per week was dying from Covid before the vaccine requirement. We have gone eight weeks without any COVID-related deaths among our vaccine employees, which is based on United's prior experience and the nationwide data related to COVID deaths among the unvaccinated.
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