United Airlines has announced that all its employees in the US must get vaccinated against the coronavirus by late October, or risk being terminated. It is the first major American airline carrier to impose the requirement – one of the strictest vaccine mandates from any US company.

The airline’s mandate applies to all 67,000 of its workers in the US, including flight attendants and gate agents who have close contact with customers, according to NBC News.

United Airlines employees are being asked to upload proof that they have completed both does of a Pfizer or Moderna jab or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by October 25.

‘We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,’ United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said Friday in a note to employees obtained by NBC News.

‘But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.’

Employees who have health issues or religious reasons may be granted exceptions to the requirement.

United Airlines would not disclose its company-wide vaccination rate. However, it stated that about 80% of flight attendants and 90% of pilots have already been inoculated.

Major carriers had resisted imposing vaccine mandates for all employees until United Airlines’ decision. The carriers had offered incentives for workers to get vaccinated, such as time off or additional pay.

In May, Delta Air Lines began requiring new hires to provide proof of vaccination, and United Airlines did the same in June.

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