- 44% of Republicans said they would support a government requirement to provide proof of vaccination in order to fly.
- 48% of Republicans would also support a mandate directly from commercial airlines.
- 95% of Democrats would support either a government or commercial airline vaccine passport requirement.
As the delta variant surges, nearly 65% of frequent flyers report that a vaccine passport would increase their confidence in the safety of air travel, according to a new report. While 90% of frequent flyers either fully or partially vaccinated against the virus, nearly one in 10 frequent flyers refuse to get vaccinated.
These numbers are encouraging because frequent flyers have high levels of vaccinations. However, if the FAA decided to implement a vaccine passport program, nearly one in 10 travelers would be barred from boarding the plane.
The survey was conducted using the Frequent Flyer Database, which includes more than 200,000 opt-in frequent flyers from across the United States. Nearly 65% of survey participants are more than 60-years-old, placing them in an at-risk category for severe illness from COVID-19.
The travel industry was one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, with restrictions forcing travel and tourism to come to a screeching halt. Recovery has been slow. In the 2020 Frequent Flyer Survey, 60% of respondents said they had plans to travel in the next six months. Yet in this year’s report, 36% of respondents said they have not traveled since January 2020.
But the appetite for travel is increasing. Nearly 70% of respondents said they have plans to travel by plane in the next six months, with 72% of those travelers planning personal trips.
