6,300 flights canceled when Omicron hits Christmas trip | News about coronavirus pandemic
More than 6,000 flights have been canceled worldwide over the long Christmas weekend, and thousands were delayed, according to a tracking website, as the highly contagious Omicron variant brings holiday damage to millions.
To exacerbate the travel chaos in the United States, severe weather in the country’s western chaos is due to roads and other routes there, although it may well bring a white Christmas weekend to the northwestern American cities of Seattle and Portland.
According to Flightaware.com, nearly 2,800 flights were scrubbed around the world on Saturday, including more than 970 originating from or en route to U.S. airports, with more than 8,000 delays from 1[ads1]:30 GMT.
On Friday, there were approximately 2,400 cancellations and 11,000 delays, while Sunday cancellations have already passed 1,100.
Pilots, flight attendants and other employees have reported sick or had to be quarantined after exposure to covid-19, which has forced Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines and many other short-staffed airlines to cancel flights during one of this year’s flights. high travel periods.
“The Help @ united flight was canceled again. I want to come home for Christmas “, tweeted a resigned traveler from the US state of Vermont to the airline early Saturday.
Flighttaware data showed that United canceled around 200 flights on Friday and almost 250 on Saturdays – about 10 percent of those planned.
A battle to redirect pilots and planes and relocate employees was underway, but Omicron’s increase has boosted operations.
“The nationwide increase in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people operating our operation,” United said in a statement on Friday.
“As a result, we have unfortunately had to cancel some flights and notify affected customers before they arrive at the airport,” the airline said.
Similarly, Delta scrapped 310 flights on Saturday and already canceled several dozen more Sundays, saying it had “used all options and resources – including rerouting and replacements of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flights”.
“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” the company said.
The cancellations contributed to the frustration of the pandemic for many people who were eager to be reunited with their families during the holidays after last year’s Christmas gatherings were greatly reduced.
Chinese airlines accounted for the highest number of cancellations, with China Eastern scrapping more than 1,000 flights – over 20 percent of the plane – on Friday and Saturday, while Air China also stopped around 20 percent of its scheduled departures during the period.
‘Traitor’ snow conditions
According to estimates from the American Automobile Association, more than 109 million Americans were to travel by plane, train or car between December 23 and January 2, an increase of 34 percent from last year.
But most of these plans were made before the outbreak of Omicron, which has become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the United States, and overwhelms some hospitals and healthcare professionals.
The state of New York announced on Friday that it registered 44,431 new daily positive COVID-19 tests, a record, while new cases also increased across the country.
On the weather front, while unusually warm temperatures bathed eastern states, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued warnings of winter storms, including freezing for significant parts of the west.
“Abnormally cold conditions and a torrential downpour of humidity in the Pacific Ocean result in prolonged periods of mountain snow and coastal / valley rain, some of which can fall heavily at times,” the NWS said in a statement.
A striking 61–122 cm (24–48 inches) of snow was forecast to fall this weekend, with higher accumulation in some places in the northern and central Sierra Mountains of California and Oregon.
Travel will be “treacherous to sometimes impossible” from the Sierras to the central Rocky Mountains this weekend due to white snow conditions, NWS added.
