At least 5,700 flights around the world have been canceled and thousands delayed over the long Christmas weekend, a tracking website reported on Saturday, as the highly contagious Omicron variant brings holiday travel headaches to millions.
According to flightaware.com, more than 2,500 flights were scrubbed around the world on Christmas Day, starting with about 4,200 delays to or from more than 870 US airports as of 1430 GMT.
On Friday, there were about 2,400 cancellations and 11,000 delays, while Sunday cancellations have already topped 800.
Pilots, flight attendants and other staff are calling for sick or quarantine after exposure to COVID, with Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue and many other short-staff carriers canceling flights during peak travel periods of one year force to do.
A distressed passenger from the US state of Vermont tweeted the airline early Saturday: “Help@United flight canceled again. I want to go home for Christmas.”
FlightAware data shows United canceled about 200 flights each day on Friday and Saturday, or 10 percent of those that were scheduled.
Scramble was on to resupply pilots and planes and reassign staff, but Omicron’s boom has stymied the business.
“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crew and the people running our operations,” United said in a statement on Friday.
“As a result, we have unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying affected customers prior to their arrival at the airport,” the airline said.
Similarly, Delta canceled at least 280 flights on Saturday and 64 already on Sunday, saying “all options and resources have been exhausted – including aircraft to cover the scheduled flight and Includes crew re-route and replacement.”
“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” the company said.
The cancellations added to the gloom of the pandemic for many eager to be reunited with their families over the holiday after severely curtailing last year’s Christmas.
Chinese airlines made the most number of cancellations, with China Eastern canceling more than 1,000 flights on Friday and Saturday, more than 20 percent of its flight plan, and Air China also closing nearly 20 percent of its scheduled departures during the period. done.
huge travel bump
According to estimates from the American Automobile Association, more than 109 million Americans were planning to travel by plane, train or automobile between December 23 and January 2, a 34 percent increase from the previous year.
But most of those plans were made before the outbreak of Omicron, which has become a major strain in the United States, overwhelming some hospitals and healthcare workers.
New York State announced on Friday that it recorded 44,431 new daily positive COVID tests, a new record.
Fortunately, Omicron didn’t affect Santa’s travel plans, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which has tracked St. Nick’s Christmas visit for six decades.
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden spoke with NORAD officials on Friday to ensure that Father Christmas’s visit went smoothly.
Biden then spoke to several American families via video call to discuss the holiday. But the light-hearted moment turned sour, highlighting the country’s political divide, when a father, to whom Biden had only wished for happy holidays, insulted him.
The father replied “Merry Christmas” but with “Let’s go Brandon”, a phrase used by Donald Trump supporters as a euphemism for derogatory remarks against the current president.
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