Hundreds of U.S. Christmas Eve Flights Canceled
Christmas Eve is off to a bad start for travelers around the country. Delta and United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have canceled hundreds of flights today, as the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant takes a toll on its flight crews and other people who run operations.
United Airlines on Thursday canceled 120 flights for Friday, while Delta Air Lines said it had canceled about 90, Reuters reports. Both airlines said they were working to contact passengers so they would not be stranded at airports.
FlightAware shows 169 canceled flights on Christmas Eve for United and 127 on Delta. There are 50 more canceled flights for United on Christmas Day and 89 for Delta.
Other domestic airlines were also affected. JetBlue (JBLU) canceled more than 50 flights, or about 5% of its overall schedule. Alaska Airlines said it canceled 17 flights because of Omicron Thursday and another 11 flights for Friday.
Globally, airlines have canceled over 2,000 flights, 454 of which in the United States. FlightAware shows China Eastern has canceled 474 flights, or 22% of its operation. Air China has about 190 canceled flights, which is 15% of its schedule. Air India, Shenzhen Airlines, Lion Air and Wings Air have all canceled dozens of flights as well.
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Hearing on the news of folks now being delayed 3 days for their cancelled Hawaiian flights. Talk about a Blue Hawaiian Christmas! Only 7 days left to see if anything worse can be crammed into this annus horribilis.
I really do feel bad for those who are wanting to travel to see those whom they haven’t seen since Christmas 2019. It’s sucks for sure. Normally I’d be amongst those but decided to sit this Christmas out for other reasons.
I hope those affected can get rebooked and salvage some of the holiday.