U.S. airlines cancel hundreds of flights
Restrictions on Christmas Day due to Omicron

U.S. airlines canceled nearly 1,000 flights on Saturday, making massive cancellations for the second day in a row as the escalating COVID-19 infection incapacitated some pilots and other crew members and messed up the plans of tens of thousands of Christmas travelers over the Christmas weekend .
A total of 957 flights were canceled on Christmas Day, including domestic flights and flights in and out of the country, up from 690 on Christmas Eve, according to an ongoing listing on flight tracking website FlightAware.com. Almost 2,000 flights were delayed.
At least one airline said it expected hundreds more cancellations on Sunday.
The Christmas holidays are typically a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the highly transmissible variant of Omicron has resulted in a surge in COVID-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and crews under Must be quarantined.
United Airlines canceled 230 flights while American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) canceled 90 flights, company officials said in separate statements.
"This week's nationwide surge in Omicron cases has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operations," said United spokeswoman Maddie King. She said the cancellations were only a small fraction of United's average of 4,000 daily flights during the holiday season.
"We're working hard to rebook as many passengers as possible and get them on their way for the holidays," she said.
Winter weather and Omicron forced Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) to cancel 344 out of approximately 3,000 scheduled flights on Saturday "after exhausting all opportunities and resources to prevent these cancellations," a company spokesman said, adding, that the effects would likely continue on Sunday as well.
"Delta expects more than 300 of its flights to be canceled on Sunday, December 26th," the spokesman said. "Delta employees work together around the clock to rerout and replace aircraft and crews so customers can get to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible."
According to FlightAware data, just over 2,700 flights were canceled and an additional 7,049 flights were delayed around the world at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) on Saturday.
The hardest hit airports in the United States included Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta, Newark Liberty International in New Jersey, Los Angeles International and JFK International in New York. Six of the top 10 airports in the world hit by the cancellations were in China.
Not all airlines were affected equally. A Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) spokesman said there were no issues with the airline's flights on Saturday.
The Omicron variant was first discovered in November and now accounts for almost three quarters of the cases in the USA, in some areas such as the east coast even 90%.
The average number of new coronavirus cases in the US has risen 45% to 179,000 a day in the past week, according to a Reuters count.
While recent research suggests that Omicron causes milder illness and fewer hospital stays than previous variants of COVID-19, health officials remain cautious about the outlook.
Before the Christmas holidays, Americans looked for COVID-19 tests and many have pursued their travel plans.
The US authorities have stated that people who are fully vaccinated can go on vacation trips without hesitation.
