Apr. 13—Delta Air Lines will end its $200 per month healthcare surcharge imposed on employees not vaccinated against COVID-19, CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The healthcare surcharge will discontinue at the end of this month, he said. Bastian also said if the federal mask mandate for air travel is discontinued, Delta will not require passengers or employees to wear masks.
Both stances are shifts in how the Atlanta-based airline is approaching an evolving COVID-19 pandemic. Delta took a lead role early in the pandemic instituting precautions including mask requirements, middle seat blocks and testing, then vaccinations.
The airline reopened its middle seats nearly a year ago. Now, the company has stopped requiring employees to get tested on a regular basis and has been pushing the federal government to end the mask mandate for air travel.
Coronavirus infections are near their lowest point nationally since July 2021 following a record-breaking omicron surge. COVID-19 cases are rising nationally, largely in the Northeast, but hospitalizations are at their lowest point since early in the pandemic.
Still, there are concerns another surge could soon start. Philadelphia, for instance, recently announced plans to reinstate its indoor mask mandate amid an increase in infections.
Bastian told the AJC that he's not concerned about the impact of new omicron subvariants.
"Not at all," he said. "We look at hospitalizations as the key measure," and he said the airline hasn't had an employee hospitalized with COVID for a month.
Delta last August announced it would charge employees who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 an extra $200 a month starting in November 2021 as part of the company's health care plans and would require unvaccinated employees to be tested weekly while case counts were high.
The airline took the approach of a financial penalty on unvaccinated employees to incentivize vaccinations, instead of mandating shots.
At the time, Bastian told employees the $200 monthly surcharge "will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company."
Bastian said this week that while the surcharge will end, new hires at Delta will still have to be vaccinated.
Some companies have discontinued their COVID-19 vaccination requirements for employees or new hires, including Starbucks and JPMorgan, according to reports.
The federal mask mandate on planes and public transportation is in place through April 18. The Biden administration has not said if it will extend the federal face covering requirement.
Bastian said if the federal mandate is lifted, Delta employees and customers will still have the option to wear masks, "but we will not require it."
Delta began requiring that customers wear masks on planes in May 2020 following similar moves by other airlines, well before the federal mask mandate took effect in early 2021 at the beginning of the Biden administration.
When Bastian and other airline CEOs sent a letter to President Joe Biden last month urging the elimination of the federal mask requirement, Bastian issued a statement saying, "Current data and science show it's time to move from mandates to guidance and personal health choices."
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