By Rohit Vaid
New Delhi, May 4 (IANS): Airline major IndiGo is set to become the first domestic airline with an all inoculated operational staff.
Accordingly, the airline in anticipation of rising travel demand on the back of accelerated vaccination programme has initiated the internal inoculation drive.
Besides, the company wants to restore confidence in not just the travelling public but also in operational crew members, front office and ground handling staff.
Recently, Centre allowed for a liberalised vaccination phase under which private entities can procure vaccines at market regulated prices.
These jabs can then be administered under medical supervision to the company's staff.
According to IndiGo's Chief HR Officer Raj Raghavan: "We are fully committed towards the vaccination of our entire workforce, including our subsidiary Agile, as soon as possible."
"As of today vaccination drives have already commenced aggressively across 35 stations and we are in the process of including more stations."
Presently, the airline has around 23,000 employees, including employees belonging to its subsidiary Agile, all of whom, it plans to inoculate
Furthermore, the company is also providing time off to crew members upon vaccination as per guidelines.
"We are also sponsoring vaccination for our employees and facilitating it for their families."
Industry insiders contend that such a move is crucial to speed up the country's vaccination process and give a fillip to the travel industry.
Cumulatively, India has administered over 15 crore doses of anti-Covid vaccines.
However, India's crushing second Covid-19 wave has been making new peaks with daily cases near the 4 lakh level.
In addition, to ease the onslaught from the second wave, the airline has engaged its CarGo subsidiary to transport essential medical supplies across the country.
Lately, the airline has flown in oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong to Delhi via Kolkata, to help ease the current situation in the city.
At present, IndiGo has a fleet of over 280 aircraft.
It operates around 1,200 daily flights connecting 66 domestic and 24 international destinations.