Surging cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant have led to hundreds of last-minute cancellations of Christmas Eve flights across the U.S.
Why it matters: Thousands of customers are believed to be affected by the latest pandemic-driven travel disruption.
- United, Delta, JetBlue and Allegiant were some of the airlines that canceled flights, for a total of more than 3,500 flights canceled worldwide for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, per the New York Times.
- According to flight tracker FlightAware, more than 2,300 Christmas Eve flights have been canceled worldwide and more than 600 in the U.S. as of Friday afternoon. The cancellations represent between 5% and 10% of each U.S. airline's flights, according to FlightAware.
What's happening: "The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," a United spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
- "As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport," the spokesperson said, noting that airline staff were working to rebook as many people as possible.
- Delta said in a statement to Nexstar, "Delta teams have exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying — before canceling around 90 flights for Friday." The airline was also working on rebooking flights.
- Two other major U.S. airlines — American and Southwest — aren't reporting problems with flight cancellations so far, per AP.
The big picture: Airlines for America (A4A), which lobbies on behalf of...