US airport chaos continues as more than 2,600 flights are canceled Coronavirus pandemic News

FlightAware says more than 2,600 flights in the U.S. and nearly 4,600 were canceled worldwide on Saturday.

Air travel in the U.S. was continuously suspended on Saturday, and bad weather in some parts of the country added to the impact of the dramatic rise in COVID-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant.

The U.S. canceled 2,604 flights, more than half of all 4,529 flights canceled worldwide, at less than 4:30 p.m. (2130 GMT), according to the FlightAware monitoring website.

In addition, 3,447 domestic flights were delayed on Saturday, from 7,602 for the total day worldwide.

The worst-hit U.S. airline was Southwest, which had to cancel 13 percent of its flight schedule, according to the website.

In the U.S., Chicago airports were particularly harsh due to inclement weather, as a snowstorm was expected on Saturday afternoon and night.

The global airline industry is still a highly contagious variant of Omicron.

Many pilots, flight attendants and other staff are out of work after being hired as COVID-19, or because they are in quarantine after contacting someone with an infection.

Around 7,500 flights were canceled over the weekend by airlines around the world.