Delta to end $200 fee for unvaccinated staff

Bloomberg

Delta Air Lines will stop assessing a $200 monthly surcharge for employees who have not received a coronavirus vaccination, the latest sign that the travel industry is relaxing its approach to the virus even as the US plans to extend a face-mask requirement.
The assessment to cover the added costs of Covid-19 illnesses will end April 30, a Delta spokesman said.
Delta declined to say how many employees have been paying the surcharge but that more than 95% of its 75,000 workers had been vaccinated as of January. Delta’s decision was based on falling case counts and a decline in severe illnesses nationwide. CEO Ed Bastian said on a call to discuss quarterly earnings that the company believes the US is beginning to view Covid as more of “a manageable seasonal virus.”
Delta announced in August — amid a surge in new infections and hospital cases — that it would impose the surcharge as of November 1 to help defray health coverage costs. The Atlanta-based carrier did not mandate employee vaccinations as did other firms like Goldman, Alphabet and United Airlines.