By Rohit Vaid
New Delhi, Jun 2 (IANS): Having 96 per cent of its eligible frontline workforce already inoculated with first jab, AirAsia India is set to conduct complete bio-safe operations.
According to AirAsia India's MD & CEO Sunil Bhaskaran, the airline's inoculation drive was completed just days ago.
"By the end of May we covered 96 per cent of our workforce, excluding those ineligible for medical reasons, such as those recovering from Covid in the recent past," Bhaskaran told IANS.
"With the support of the Tata group-led vaccination drives, we are also providing vaccination support to others in our extended families, including all the dependents of our employees."
Besides, he pointed out for a completely safe flying operational environment the airline started with prioritising vaccinations for guest-facing staff including Pilots, Cabin Crew, Security, Ground Staff, and Catering Operations.
In all the airline has provided the first jab to around 3,000 employees.
Recently, Centre allowed for a liberalised vaccination phase under which private entities can procure vaccines at market regulated prices. These jabs can then be administered under medical supervision to the company's staff.
As per industry insiders, vaccination is being looked as the only possible way out of the current crises facing the sector.
The ongoing second wave has had a devastating impact on the already fragile industry.
Specifically, the contact intensive nature of the sector has weaned away even the pent up travel demand.
The Bangalore headquartered airline AirAsia India is a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Investment.
It commenced operations on June 12th 2014 and flies to 17 destinations across India with 32 Airbus A320 aircraft.