Spirit Airlines Will Mandate Employee Vaccines

Spirit Airlines is poised to become the latest domestic airline to comply with a federal mandate to have all employees vaccinated.

Spirit CEO Ted Christie on Friday told staff to prepare themselves to get inoculated for the COVID-19 virus prior to the December 8 deadline set by The White House.

“The federal government has made it clear that Covid-19 vaccination or testing requirements will be mandated for companies with more than 100 employees, and we will comply with that order,” Christie said in a staff email, which was obtained by CNBC.

The Biden Administration said last month that any company with more than 100 employees that has a contract with the federal government must mandate a vaccine or regular testing for its workers.

Christie said implementation of those rules will depend on government guidance “but we will be moving forward with new health and safety policies, in any case.”

A Spirit spokesman confirmed the email to CNBC and said the company expected to give employees more details in the next few weeks. Last month, Spirit asked staff to share attestations of their vaccination status to gauge how many of them are inoculated. The discount airline is still collecting those forms.

The airline had more than 8,700 employees as of the end of 2020 but has been in the processing of hiring pilots, flight attendants and others this year.

United, Frontier, American, JetBlue and Alaska airlines have all adopted an employee vaccine mandate.