Regional airlines aren’t requiring shots yet

Major U.S. airlines are increasingly mandating Covid-19 vaccines for employees. Some of the regional carriers that fly under their names have not — at least not yet.

Large airlines like United, American and Delta contract smaller carriers to operate some shorter routes in their networks, tickets for which are sold on the bigger carrier’s website and other platforms as its own. Some of these smaller airlines are wholly owned subsidiaries such as American’s Envoy and Delta’s Endeavor Air while others, like SkyWest and Mesa Air Group, are independent.

Representatives for Mesa, Envoy, SkyWest and United contractor CommutAir said they haven’t issued requirements for employees yet but are evaluating whether federal requirements will compel them to mandate vaccines for staff.

The Biden administration last month said federal contractors must ensure that their staff is vaccinated against Covid by Dec. 8. President Joe Biden also said that companies with more than 100 employees will have to enforce a vaccine mandate for all staff, or regularly test those who aren’t. Regional carriers would at the very least fit into the second category.

“It’s somewhat murky,” Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of Mesa Air Group, which flies for American and United, said of what will be required of regional airlines. The Phoenix-based carrier’s executives are awaiting more clarity on the rules from federal officials, lawyers and airline customers, but the carrier will comply with federal mandates, he said.

Ornstein said he worries about potentially losing workers if the company of more than 3,000 employees mandates staff vaccinations without a federal requirement that would put competitors on a level playing field.

“I’m concerned that if in the hypothetical we were to mandate a vaccination and there were other job opportunities that didn’t mandate vaccines [some employees] would leave,” he said.

American, Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest each told staff over the past week that they must be vaccinated to comply with the federal contractor rules. Previously, those airlines encouraged staff to be vaccinated but didn’t require it. United had implemented its own vaccine mandate in August and has said that more than 96% of its 67,000 U.S. employees are vaccinated after the deadline passed last week. The Chicago-based airline said it encouraged its contractors to mandate vaccines as well.

Those large airlines are federal contractors, providing services like cargo flights or tickets for government employees, among other services. Southwest does not use third-party regional airlines.