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The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Thursday called for priority vaccination of air traffic controllers, cockpit and cabin crew members or airlines, and mission critical and passenger-facing staff.
This is part of the guidelines issued to facilitate expeditious Covid-19 vaccination of aviation personnel working in government as well as private entities. The ministry also said a dedicated vaccination facility will be established by airport operators at their respective premises to facilitate the inoculation drive of staffers.
At last count, nearly one in every five air traffic controllers at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport was out of action, either directly or indirectly affected by Covid-19, The Indian Express had reported on May 3.
Earlier this week, a group of Air India pilots had threatened to stop flying if they were not vaccinated urgently, following which the national carrier announced that all its employees will be vaccinated by May-end. In a statement Thursday, low-cost carrier GoAir said it has already rolled out the vaccination programme for its employees and was aiming to vaccinate a bulk of them by the month’s end. IndiGo had earlier announced it would have all of its employees inoculated.
The guidelines issued by the ministry noted that an operator should immediately contact the state governments or private service providers, which are willing to set up Covid-19 vaccination centres at the airports. There can be more than one service providers at any airport depending on number of personnel working in the aviation ecosystem, it stated.
The cost per vaccination dose can be decided by the airport operator with the service provider and it will be same for aviation personnel, the ministry said, adding that the focus of major airports could be on tying up with private service providers.
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