American Airlines and JetBlue tell staff they must get vaccinated because of Biden's COVID-19 rules. American said unvaccinated staff 'will not be able to work' there.

• American and JetBlue have ordered staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
• They are classed as government contractors and fall under Biden's federal mandate, they said.
• An American Airlines pilots' union previously said that a mandate could lead to staff shortages.

American Airlines and JetBlue are now requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 after a reported push from the White House.

American CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom wrote to colleagues on October 1 saying that US-based staff and some international crew members must get vaccinated. Anyone who remained unvaccinated "will not be able to work at American Airlines," Parker and Isom said in the letter.

President Joe Biden announced in September that federal contractors must be vaccinated by December 8. In Parker and Isom's letter, which American sent to Insider, they cited this mandate, and said the airline was classified as a federal contractor because of agreements it had with the government, including the City Pair Program and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program.

JetBlue said it had "communicated this vaccine requirement to our crew members," citing the mandate for federal contractors, the company said in an email to Insider.

The airlines did not specify a deadline.

The White House spoke to major airlines on Thursday to ensure they would enforce the December 8 deadline, Reuters reported on Friday.

A union representing 14,000 pilots at American Airlines warned in September that a vaccine mandate could lead to staff shortages.

Mandates could force airlines to "either offer unpaid leaves of absence or, worse, implement mass terminations of unvaccinated pilots," the Allied Pilots Association (APA) said.

At the time, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) reiterated the APA's warnings. Southwest said in August that the company wouldn't mandate vaccines for employees, per a CNN report.

Alaska Airlines is also mandating vaccines. The Seattle-headquartered carrier said on Friday that staff needed to get the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the mandate for government contractors, Insider's Sarah Jackson reported.

Alaska said it had extended its deadline for employees to get $200 for uploading proof of vaccination, The New York Times reported.