Despite Abbott’s executive order banning Covid-19 vaccine mandates in Texas, Southwest and American Airlines will comply with federal vaccine mandate

Texas – As we already reported earlier today, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order on Monday banning Covid-19 vaccine mandates in Texas for all entities withing the state.

Abbott signed the executive order in an effort to help companies and vaccine hesitant workers with the federal vaccine mandate announced last month by president Joe Biden and the White House administration requiring all companies with more than 100 workers to mandate their workers to get the vaccine.

However, despite the executive order, Southwest and American Airlines announced they will go against Abbott’s order and will comply with the federal vaccine mandate announced by president Biden.

“No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19,” Abbott wrote in his order.

This is what Southwest said on Tuesday in a response to Abbott’s order:

“According to the president’s executive order, federal action supersedes any state mandate or law, and we would be expected to comply with the president’s order to remain compliant as a federal contractor,” Southwest said in a statement.

Additionally, the Fort Worth-based American Airlines said they will continue with their vaccination mandate plan announced even before Biden announced the federal mandate. According to the plan, American Airlines requires all employees to get fully vaccinated by November 24.

“As a result, the federal vaccine mandate requires that all of American’s U.S.-based team members and certain international crew members be vaccinated, without the provision of a regular testing alternative,” the airline reiterated from a statement it released earlier this month.

Last week, the Southwest Airlines pilots’ association filed a motion to block the airline’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for pilots.

Despite thousands of Southwest flight cancelations and delays over the weekend, the pilots’ association said it was not responsible for the problems.