United Airlines trims its operations as 3,000 employees down with Covid

As many as 3,000 employees or 4.5 per cent of the workforce at United Airlines is down with COVID-19, forcing the airlines to cut back its operations in the near term to “make sure the staffing and resources take care of customers.”

In one day alone at Newark, nearly one-third of our workforce called out sick,” United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby wrote Tuesday in a memo to workers. “To those who are out sick or isolating, we wish you a speedy recovery.”

The United is one of the many airlines that have announced to trim its operations as Omicron continues to drive up infections across the world.

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JetBlue and Alaska have already announced proactive flight cuts due to an unprecedented number of sick calls.

Notably, all the 3,000 employees who have contracted Covid are vaccinated and none of them are hospitalised, Kirby said.

Moreover, he revealed that prior to the airline's vaccine mandate, which took effect in September, more than one United employee was dying from COVID-19 every week, on average.

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“But we've now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among our vaccinated employees,” he wrote, noting that based on available data, that means approximately eight to 10 lives were saved by the vaccine requirement.

United was among the first companies in the US that issued mandatory COVID-19 vaccination order for all of its employees.

According to reports, more than 97 per cent of its 67,000 US-based employees had gotten the shots by September.

(With inputs from agencies)