United Airlines says unvaccinated pilots costing it millions
BNN Bloomberg
United Airlines Inc. said it’s spending millions on paid leave for unvaccinated pilots because their colleagues “refuse to risk their safety” by flying with them.
United Airlines Inc. said it’s spending millions on paid leave for unvaccinated pilots because their colleagues “refuse to risk their safety” by flying with them.
The leave is costing the airline about US$1.4 million every two weeks - money it’s unlikely to recover even if it wins the lawsuit, United said in a filing Friday night in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, where it is fighting a legal challenge to the employee vaccine mandate it announced in August.
United asked U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman not to extend a temporary restraining order he imposed earlier this month barring the airline from placing unvaccinated workers with a religious or medical objection to its mandate on unpaid leave.
In a response filed Saturday, the plaintiffs said vaccinated pilots should “not know whether they are flying with an unvaccinated pilot” and that “United should be informing its pilots - as they do the general public - that the risk of contracting COVID-19 on a United airplane is almost zero.”
The plaintiffs want the order in place for the duration of the court fight. United argues the order is unwarranted because pilots who sued would get “money damages and retroactive seniority if they ultimately prevail on the merits.”
While the cost cited in the filing is relatively small for a company of United’s size, the airline industry is still struggling with the aftermath of the pandemic that devastated its business in 2020. The company announced a loss of more than US$7 billion last year as air traffic nearly ground to a halt.
