Thousands of would-be travelers received a last-minute cancellation of their Christmas Eve flight because of the recent spike of Omicron cases.
According to Flight Aware, at least 131 flights were canceled by United Airlines on Friday, along with 28 more that were supposed to take off on Saturday. Other airlines did the same.
In Australia, hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne as the country's coronaviruses cases surged to their highest since the start of the Pandemic.
As of Thursday evening, there were more than 1,500 canceled worldwide, according to the website.
It was the latest blow to the holiday season caused by the new and highly transmissible Omicron variant, which now accounts for more than 70 percent of new coronaviruses cases in the United States. The number of people testing positive for coronaviruses has increased by 38 percent over the last two weeks.
United said that Omicron had a direct impact on their flight crews and people who run their operation. Joshua Freed said that United notified customers as soon as it could after crew members called in sick. Mr. Freed said he doesn't expect the airline to cancel more flights, but it is a possibility.
He said that they were really managing this day by day. There may be more flight cancelations on Saturday. It is possible.
John Ferris was one of dozens of customers who took to social media to complain about the last-minute cancellation. There are no flights available. Ba humbug.
The airline said it is trying to rebook as many people as possible in time for the holidays.
In Australia, where more than 500 Omicron cases have been recorded, many airline staff members are unable to work because they have been identified as close contacts of positive coronaviruses. They are required to isolated until they receive a negative coronaviruses test, which can take at least 12 hours.
The increasing number of cases in the general community has led to a large number of frontline team members being required to test and isolated. We had to make some late adjustments to our schedule.
A spokesman for the airport said that out of a total 500 flights, 80 had been canceled.
More than 70 flights departing or arriving from the airport on December 24 had been scrapped. 45 flights had been canceled, according to the airport.
