Gallery: Have Vaccinations, Will Travel

Linda Blachly

Delta to fly fully vaccinated Americans to Iceland

Photo credit: Delta Air Lines

After Iceland recently exempted fully vaccinated Americans from the ban on non-essential travel and other restrictions—like testing and quarantine requirements—Delta Air Lines in May will launch new daily services from Boston Logan to Keflavík International Airport (KEF), as well as resume daily services from New York JFK and daily services from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP). This move makes Iceland the first leisure destination in Europe easily accessible to US travelers since the pandemic began. Customers traveling to Iceland will be required to provide proof of full vaccination or recovery of COVID-19. Travelers returning to the US will still require a negative COVID-19 test and can find a nearby location with Delta’s dedicated testing resource for international travel.

Emirates operates special A380 flight with fully vaccinated crew, passengers

Photo credit: Emirates Airline

Emirates Airline will operate a special Airbus A380 flight that will carry only fully vaccinated crew and passengers onboard in April. On April 10, special flight EK2021 is scheduled to depart Dubai International Airport at 12:00hrs local time, to cruise over various areas across the UAE. The flight will return to Dubai at 14:30hrs local time. Emirates’ newest A380 aircraft features premium economy seats and refreshed cabin interiors across all cabin classes.

SIA Group flies with fully vaccinated crew

Photo credit: Singapore Airlines

In February, all three passenger airlines within the SIA Group—Singapore Airlines (SIA), SilkAir and Scoot—were among the first carriers in the world to operate flights with a full complement of vaccinated pilots and cabin crew. The first services with a full set of vaccinated crew are SIA flight SQ956, which departed Singapore for Jakarta, Indonesia on Feb. 11, Scoot’s flight TR606, which departed for Bangkok, Thailand, and SilkAir’s MI608, which departed for Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

RwandAir first African carrier to vaccinate all personnel

Photo credit: Rob Finlayson

Central African carrier RwandAir reported March 24 that it became the first airline on the continent to vaccinate all personnel against the coronavirus. The airline began its vaccination roll-out program earlier in March, and all ground staff and aircrew have received their first shots of vaccine. Non-airline staff at Kigali International Airport have also been vaccinated.

As vaccinations take center stage in the fight against COVID-19—which has wreaked havoc on the airline industry to the tune of $118 billion in losses in 2020, according to IATA—the travel industry is banking on the shots to bring the industry back to life. To jump start the positive trend, airlines are beginning to offer special privileges for staff and passengers who are fully vaccinated.

Linda Blachly

Linda Blachly is Senior Associate Editor for Air Transport World and Aviation Week. She joined the company in July 2010 and is responsible for producing features for Air Transport World’s monthly magazine and engaging content for the aviationweek.com. She is based in the Washington DC office.

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