The fall was a time when travelers took to the skies as a coronaviruses wave subsided. The carriers and their passengers are in a holiday mess because of a new virus surge and winter storms.
Airlines have been canceling more than 1,000 flights a day, from or within the United States, heading into the New Year's weekend. The Omicron variant of the Pandemic has cut into the ability to staff flights, even though most of the crew members are vaccine free.
The director of organizing at the Transport Workers Union, which represents flight attendants at JetBlue, said that he had never seen a meltdown like this before. They can't keep up with the amount of positive tests.
According to FlightAware, 17 percent of the flights at JetBlue were canceled on Thursday. The carrier said Wednesday that it would reduce flights by over a thousand through January due to the rise in virus cases in the Northeast.
The weather in the Pacific Northwest was particularly challenging in recent days, with heavy snowfall and record low temperatures, which grounded planes last weekend.
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The next few days may be just as frustrating. Dan De Podwin, director of forecast operations at AccuWeather, said that storms in Southern California and the Northwest could combine to dump snow on airline hubs in Denver and Chicago, as well as threatening Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Alaska Airlines suggested that people put off nonessential travel until the new year. Fourteen percent of the carrier's flights were canceled Thursday as Seattle got more snow.
According to the Transportation Security Administration estimates, as many as 10 million people may fly from Thursday through Monday. Airlines have been preparing for months for the holiday crush. Many passengers were frustrated because the measures were inadequate.
Even though it has been two years with Covid, it doesn't seem like they have figured out how to get to the northern lights, as evidenced by the fact that both their flights on Delta Air Lines were canceled on Tuesday. She said that Delta told them that it couldn't rebook them for several days, so they canceled their plans.
It was difficult to change plans before leaving. A traveler trying to rebook a family trip on American Airlines was told to expect a four-hour wait from an agent.
Some say airlines are to blame for the turmoil. The industry received $54 billion in federal aid to keep workers employed during the Pandemic. Thousands of workers were offered early-retirement packages by carriers.
The industry employed nearly 413,000 people in October, down almost 9 percent from the same month in the previous year, according to federal data. The airlines have had trouble turning a profit because passenger volumes are below average.
The New York Times reports that the latest coronaviruses surge has caused an unusual number of sick calls from pilots and flight attendants.
The industry tried to get the CDC to reduce the 10-day isolation period for people with the coronaviruses, which can be fatal, to five days. Some scientists who are not associated with airlines made a suggestion to bolster strained work forces in hospitals.
The C.D.C. now advises five days of isolation for people who have had their symptoms end and five days of wearing a mask. The agency said that the change was made because of the findings that the coronaviruses was mostly transmitted one to two days before symptoms appeared and two to three days after.
The New York Times has seen a memo that says that employees who have no symptoms, or whose symptoms are improving, will be expected to return to work after five days. Crew members will not be paid if they remain on leave if they provide a doctor's note, according to Mr. Cucuzza of the Transport Workers Union.
The health and safety of our crew members and customers remains our top priority as we work through this Pandemic.
If a worker chooses to be tested on Day 5 and the results are positive, Delta will give them two additional paid sick days.
The industry is debating the shorter isolation time. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines, wrote a letter to airlines on Tuesday urging them to maintain a 10-day isolation period.
Sara Nelson, the union's president, wrote that they believe this is the wrong move for aviation as it accepts that infectious people will be put back on the job or flying as passengers on our planes. Several flight attendants were worried that their colleagues might return to work without being tested.
Airlines always prepare for turmoil around the holidays, when bad winter weather in one place can knock an entire system off balance. The industry has been hit hard this year.
Passengers wait for a flight at the Atlanta airport.
After American and Southwest canceled thousands of flights in October because of bad weather and a shortage of air traffic controllers, they promised to hire more people and increase flight plans for the holiday season. Both have not had a lot of cancellation this holiday season.
David Seymour, American's chief operating officer, said in an interview that they have to make sure they have enough staff. Several thousand flight attendants were recalled from leave last month and this month, and the airline hired almost 600 more.
Airlines engage in a complicated process to get out of chaos.
Airlines and aviation experts say the main goal is to minimize the effect on passengers. It is easier said than done.
Alaska Airlines invested in staff and equipment to deal with the winter weather, and lined up backup flight crews, according to its chief operating officer.
The airline was able to manage staff calling in sick at high rates by offering extra pay for others to fill in, but it was forced to cancel nearly one-third of its flights on Sunday, about one-quarter on Monday and about one-fifth on Tuesday due to the low temperatures and
Ms. von Muehlen said that there was nothing you could do to catch up.
On Tuesday, the airline made an announcement. Alaska would cut 20 percent of flights out of Seattle in order to give planes more time to de-ice. Customers were urged to delay nonessential travel until after this weekend.
She said that their values guided their decision. It is difficult for us to let people know what we are able to do, so we need to be realistic.
Getting flight crews in place can be difficult, with workers dispersed throughout the country and subject to various regulations. Flight attendants are usually required to have nine hours of rest between shifts.
The Omicron variant has made the process more complicated.
The variant is creating challenges for the roughly 13,500 United Airlines pilots in the Air Line Pilots Association.
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He said that their sick calls were above normal. He said that many pilots have helped fill gaps by picking up additional shifts, but they are limited to 100 hours a month.
The ground operations are being affected. The FAA warned on Thursday that air traffic control staff might be affected by infections.
The Transportation Security Administration said it was concerned about the rising infections but that it had enough staff. The average wait time in the airport security lines was about five minutes.
Getting through security is not a guarantee that the rest of the trip will go smoothly.
A canceled connection forced Elizabeth and her husband to spend the night at the airport. They entered the baggage claim area and found a bunch of people who had been waiting for their bags crying and napping.
There was a different reason for the fiasco every few hours. Ms. Barnhisel's bag arrived at the airport after 10 hours.
The honeymoon experience Ms. Barnhisel had in mind was not realized. She said they were flabbergasted. We definitely took a risk. We have to get back to normal somehow.
Lauren contributed to the reporting.
