With the worsening COVID conditions, this holiday is shaping up to be an interesting one, particularly for those who have plans to hop on an airplane over the coming days. As Complex reports, over 500 Christmas Eve flights have been cancelled due to a surge in Omicron cases and staff shortages.
The article notes that a flight tracking site called FlightAware has listed 175 United Christmas Eve and 69 Christmas Day flights as cancelled by midday Friday. Delta has also been faced with substantial issues, cutting 145 flights for today, and 111 for tomorrow. On top of these numbers, JetBlue has also cancelled more than 50 of their scheduled take offs.
“The nationwide spike in omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” United has said in a statement. “As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport. We’re sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays.”
Delta shared a similar sentiment, telling the Associated Press that their cancellations are happening not only because of Omicron, but also due to weather conditions in certain areas. “We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” they said. “Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight.”
While some passengers are certainly having a nightmarish holiday, those who chose to fly with American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are faring much better. The former said they had “nothing to report” while the latter shared that “things are running smoothly,” as per the Associated Press.
It’s been reported that TSA screened over two million people on Wednesday, exceeding the total number of people who travelled using airports on December 23rd, 2019.
Check back in with HNHH for more Christmas Eve updates later.
[Via]