Those planning to travel by air over the Christmas weekend may want to think of alternatives for their transportation, as several airlines have canceled hundreds of flights.
Sunday saw 804 flights either within, into, or out of the United States get canceled. There were 997 cancellations on Saturday. Monday has seen 87 so far.
Globally, 2,392 flights were canceled Sunday, with 2,858 canceled Saturday and 769 canceled Monday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
American Airlines spokesperson Derek Walls told the Associated Press that the cancellations stemmed from virus-related sick calls. A spokesperson with United told the outlet the omicron’s impact on staffing was “unexpected.”
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Airlines gave a similar response on Christmas Eve when over 2,000 flights were canceled worldwide, and more than 450 within the U.S. One airline, Lufthansa, said it could not speculate on whether COVID-19 infections or quarantines were responsible. The airline also said it shifted any affected passengers to other flights.
The cancellations come just ahead of the U.S. lifting restrictions on most air travelers from eight southern African nations on Dec. 31, reversing the move meant to curb the spread of the omicron variant. The call to remove the restrictions was made based on a recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The omicron variant of COVID-19 overtook delta as the dominant strain in the U.S. on Dec. 20. The average positive test rate for COVID-19 in the U.S. was at 9.8% on Friday. As of Thursday, 72.8%. of U.S. residents had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 61.7% fully vaccinated, according to Mayo Clinic.
