Omicron-related disruptions cause more than 4,000 canceled flights to start 2022

Author: Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – More than 4,000 flights worldwide were canceled on Sunday, more than half of them in the U.S., adding to the cost of holiday travel breaks due to bad weather and a rise in the number of coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.

More than 2,400 flights to and from the U.S. were canceled for GMT at 8pm on Sunday, according to FlightAware.com. Worldwide, more than 11,200 flights were delayed.

They were among the airlines with the most cancellations SkyWest (NASDAQ 🙂 and SouthWest, with 510 and 419 cancellations, respectively, were shown by FlightAware.

The Christmas and New Year holidays are usually the peak times of air travel, but the rapid spread of the highly transmitted Omicron variant has led to an increase in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and cabin crew quarantine.

U.S. transportation agencies were also suspending or reducing services due to a shortage of coronavirus-related staff.

Omicron has set a record number of cases and has lowered New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world.

The rise in U.S. COVID cases has led some companies to change their plans to increase the number of employees working from their offices as of Monday.

U.S. authorities registered at least 346,869 new coronaviruses on Saturday, according to a Reuters count. As a result of COVID-19, the death toll in the U.S. rose by at least 377 to 828,562.

U.S. airline cabin crew, pilots, and support staff were reluctant to work overtime during the holidays, despite offering large cash incentives. Many were afraid to hire COVID-19 and did not welcome the opportunity to deal with the bad passengers, some airline unions said.

In the months leading up to the holiday, airlines were persuaded by workers to secure strong workers, after thousands were laid off or laid off in the last 18 months, while the pandemic disrupted the industry.