Deutsche Lufthansa is striving to ensure that only vaccinated pilots and cabin staff are deployed on flights in the future - but in Germany there are legal hurdles.

"International flight operations will not be possible in the future without a mandatory corona vaccination for aircraft crews," said a group spokeswoman on Wednesday at the request of the FAZ. Many states would also require pilots and flight attendants to provide proof of vaccination.

Meanwhile, the pioneer in the group is the Swiss subsidiary Swiss. It is the first European airline to introduce mandatory vaccinations for flight personnel. This should take effect from November 15th. According to its own statements, Swiss is reacting to entry regulations all over the world. From now on, Hong Kong demands that crews from various countries have to prove that they have been vaccinated against Covid. In Germany, too, one is confronted with the guidelines from Hong Kong. And on September 1, Baku in Azerbaijan will make vaccination a requirement for staff as well, they say.

In Switzerland, Swiss is already warning of operational disruptions and that individual destinations can no longer be served if the vaccination step is not taken.

"The different handling of vaccinated and unvaccinated crew members and the associated high complexity of operational planning would mean that orderly flight operations could no longer be ensured in the long term," said the company.

Lufthansa cannot impose any duty on the German staff in a hurry.

There is no legal basis.

Vaccination query not allowed

Even more: Lufthansa is not allowed to ask who has vaccination protection and who is not. The laborious management of separate personnel deployment plans for vaccinated and unvaccinated people is therefore not possible. You build on the fact that the vaccination rate is already high. At the Austrian subsidiary Austrian Airlines it was found that 90 percent of the flight personnel there were vaccinated.

For the time being, the solution is to require a general declaration from employees deployed on affected routes that they meet the entry requirements of the destination.

But it shouldn't stay on this somewhat bumpy path.

"That is why we are working with the staff representatives on appropriate agreements that make a corona vaccination a prerequisite for flight operations," explains the spokeswoman.

The template is an agreement on yellow fever vaccinations, which are mandatory.

Compulsory vaccination at Swiss "reasonable and understandable"

At Swiss you don't see the German hurdles.

The company relies on clauses in the collective employment contracts of the cockpit and cabin personnel, which allow such measures - also out of care for the employees - under the currently extraordinary circumstances.

In fact, these contracts state that Swiss can oblige its employees to have vaccinations and other prophylaxis to prevent illness, as the president of the cabin crew's union, Sandrine Nikolic, confirmed to the FAZ.

In view of the restrictions in air traffic, she considers the compulsory vaccination to be “reasonable and understandable”.

"No jab, no job"

Airlines on other continents have already introduced strict vaccination requirements.

At Qantas in Australia they simply say “no jab, no job” - no job without vaccination.

"Aviation is not the right industry for those who refuse to be vaccinated," said CEO Alan Joyce.

As with Swiss, the deadline applies that flight personnel must be vaccinated by November 15th.