Emirates operates first flight serviced by fully vaccinated frontline teams

Emirates operates first flight serviced by fully vaccinated frontline teams.  Image:  Emirates Airlines

This morning, the full airport and onboard customer experience for flight EK215, which departed Dubai at 0830hrs for Los Angeles, was safely supported by check-in, security, Business and First Class lounge and boarding gate employees, as well as engineers, pilots and cabin crew who made the choice to be fully vaccinated.

Also supporting the flight's operations were fully vaccinated aircraft appearance, loading and special handling teams from dnata, as well as Emirates SkyCargo teams working on the cargo and logistics requirements for EK215.

The Emirates Group rolled out its vaccination drive at pace just over a month ago, and since then, close to 26,000, or 44%, of the Group's UAE frontline aviation workforce have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccines.

Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer, Emirates Airline said: "Our operational workforce are at the aviation frontline, helping people get to where they need to be, and moving essential goods to global communities. Protecting our people with vaccinations is important – for them, for our community, for the smooth running of our operations, and also for our customers as it introduces of an additional layer of protection when they travel with us. We've seen a very positive response with high demand and take-up of the Covid-19 vaccine from our colleagues at the operational frontline, and there's continued momentum in the rate of vaccinations across the business. We would like to thank the UAE's leadership for making three types of vaccines available in the country, and for their proactive commitment to championing an extensive National Vaccination Programme."

Nearly 5,000 Cabin and Flight Deck Crew have opted to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. In addition, thousands more Emirates Group employees in other roles have taken their COVID-19 vaccine through the company's clinics and vaccination centres, while others have opted to take their vaccine at one of the many vaccination centres across the UAE.