As Omicron Surges, Unions Oppose Airlines’ Effort To Cut Isolation Time For Vaxxed But Infected Workers

Airlines and airline unions have largely worked together during the dramatic second year of the pandemic, but they have split over an industry effort to shorten isolation time for fully vaccinated airline employees — including crews, agents and others — who experience breakthrough infections.

On Thursday, industry trade group Airlines for America urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halve its recommended 10-day quarantine time for people with breakthrough cases of Covid-19.

Late Thursday, the Association of Flight Attendants said the 10-day recommendation should remain in place. On Friday, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 14,000 pilots at American Airlines

AAL
, also said the 10-day recommendation should remain.

“As important as air travel is, you wouldn’t want to change something that is working,” APA spokesman Dennis Tajer said Friday. “At this critical time, we welcome the science. The science should not be covered with a blanket of commercial interest.”

In a letter sent Thursday to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, AFA President Sara Nelson wrote that decisions on suitable isolation time “should be based on science, not staffing, and they should be made by public health professionals, not airlines.

“The vast majority of crewmembers are vaccinated at this point, but may not have received a booster. If a fully vaccinated crewmember tests positive – whether for the Omicron, Delta, or another strain – we support your agency’s current recommendation to isolate for 10 days2 for several reasons,” she said.

AFA represents 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines.

Nelson referred specifically in her letter to an earlier request by Delta Air Lines to shorten the immunization time: that request, made Tuesday, was subsequently adoapted by A4A.

In the letter, Nelson noted that “the current climate in the passenger cabin is highly stressed,” with a record number of passenger incidents fueled by alcohol and refusal to comply with onboard mask rules. “Staffing flights with crewmembers who may still be symptomatic, infectious, or both by shortening them on necessary isolation time will only make this situation worse,” she said.

In his letter to the CDC, A4A President Nick Calio, noted, “As with healthcare, police, fire and public transportation workforces, the Omicron surge may exacerbate personnel shortages and create significant disruptions to our workforce and operations.”