- US companies are coming up with COVID-29 vaccine plans.
- Delta Air Lines will impose $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees.
- Delta Air Lines’ plan led to a 150% rise in influencer conversations.
Several companies came up with vaccine mandate plans after the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in August 2021. Delta Air Lines, Inc (Delta Air Lines) also took strict measures to motivate employees by increasing healthcare premium of unvaccinated employees on their healthcare plan and meet the expected rise in travel demand. This led to a staggering 150% rise in influencer conversations around ‘vaccines’ on Delta Air Lines company influencer dashboard during the last 90 days (June-August), over the previous three months.
In August, a dramatic conversation spike among influencers around Delta Air Lines was noticed when the company announced to impose a US$200 monthly surcharge on employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Influencers saw this as the latest tactic to cajole workers into having a COVID-19 jab, as surging infection cases have clouded the outlook for airlines. Influencer sentiments were also positive on this measure as it is a necessary step to address the associated financial risks because the average hospital stay for the COVID-19 costs the airline US$50,000 per person.
In August, another rise in influencer conversation was noticed when the airlines company announced its partnership with French-Belgian high-speed train operator Thalys to provide rail connections between Amsterdam and the Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp.
Likewise, there was a sharp growth in influencer conversations in July, when the Atlanta-based airline reported its first quarterly profit since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, after breaking a five-quarter streak of losses. Rising domestic leisure travel and business travel demand along with federal government aid have supported Delta Air Lines to achieve a quarterly profit of US$652m in Q2 2021.
Delta Air Lines announced its remarkable plan in June to hire more than 1,000 pilots by summer of 2022, in anticipation of an increase in travel demand after recovery from the pandemic. This led to a surge in influencer conversations in June.
Job Analytics Database reveals that for most of the 2020, the company witnessed single-digit job postings. However, Delta Air Lines saw a surge in hiring activity in 2021. Listings increased from 101 jobs in January 2021 to 474 jobs in August 2021, with job postings seeing a 55% boost between Q2 2021 and Q3 2021.
Delta Air Lines is ramping up hires in 2021 to meet high demand for travel. Additionally, the company’s hiring includes a significant number of roles for seasonal ready reserves such as customer service agents, ticket/gate agents, cargo service agents indicated. Hiring for aircraft technicians and engineers have seen an uptick since June 2021. The company is also focusing to maximize cargo revenue and market share in Latin and EMEA region.
