MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Exactly 4 months after kicking off its internal ‘Take the Shot’ campaign, AirAsia Philippines is happy to report that the move to encourage Filipino Allstars to get vaccinated was a great success.
‘Take the Shot’ campaign was targeted to be completed by the end of August. As of 31 August 2021, AirAsia Philippines’ flying crew is now a hairline towards the 100% mark. 213 out of the 217 or 98% of the cabin crew roster have been vaccinated while 106 out of 109 or 98% of the pilots have also taken the shot.
Meanwhile, 94% of the guest services (check-in counter and boarding gate staff) and 100% of the ramp agents have received their vaccine shots.
Other AirAsia Philippines’ back office departments including the Office of the CEO, Finance, Communications & Public Affairs, Branding, Sales, Marketing and People & Culture have been 100% vaccinated.
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said, “The acceleration of vaccines in all of our key markets is setting us up for a strong return to the skies. We’ve always been about the people and it doesn’t just stop with our own Allstars (employees). With stringent health and hygiene protocols and robust standard operating procedures, guests can be assured of a 360 degree peace of mind when travelling with us again.”
AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said, “In AirAsia, we believe that having a fully vaccinated workforce will protect our people against COVID-19 as well as safeguard our guests and the communities we fly to. We are happy to achieve our target vaccination this August.”
Out of the total Filipino Allstar population, only 19 remained unvaccinated which included employees who are pregnant or who opted not to be vaccinated because of other health and personal concerns.
“We fully understand the predicaments of a very small number of our staff who are not able to take the shot because of health and personal reasons. We will continue to monitor them and make sure that they get the vaccine when circumstances permit. As a matter of safety given the present high rate of infection, only those who have been vaccinated will be allowed to return to the office, and those who have not yet taken the shot are encouraged to work from home.” Isla added.
AirAsia Philippines’ inoculation campaign was made successful through its partnership with various local government units.
A recent survey conducted by AirAsia Philippines revealed that a whopping 91.4% of the passengers feel more comfortable flying with fully vaccinated crew.
Safety of staff and guests is always the top priority for AirAsia, which was one of the first airlines worldwide to achieve the top 7/7 rating for being Covid-19 safe by the aviation experts at Airlineratings.com. All of the airlines in the Group are IOSA accredited which is the global benchmark for upholding the highest safety standards at all times. Furthermore, the airline has used the downtime in flying to implement robust procedures and innovations to make flying even safer and more hygienic than ever.